April 7, 2001

Chinese Version

More than five hundred families benefited from Tzu Chi free clinic in Oakland , California
(Translated by Kevin Chou, Northern California; News was based on San Francisco office report)

On April 7th, Tzu-Chi Foundation's San Francisco office and Oakland's "Head Start" program joined forces to hold a free clinic in the Eastmont Mall in east Oakland. Lines of parents with their children rushed into the Mall when it opened at 10AM that day to register for the free healthcare services. In addition to dental care, a variety of medical care is also provided. Some of the services provided include blood sugar tests, cholesterol tests, asthma exams, obstetric exams, chiropractic, and acupuncture. Of particular interest is the dental van provided by Tzu-Chi Foundation's Southern California Free Clinic center. This van is capable of functioning as a complete dental office in providing cares ranging from dental cleaning, tooth removal to computerized X-rays.
"My family couldn't afford dental care for the children and I really appreciate you guys providing this opportunity for my kids to get their teeth cleaned," said Mrs., Garcia, a Mexican American mother waiting in line with her children in front of the dental van. Another African American couple, Mr. and Mrs. Philphe also expressed that the free clinic really provided a great service to them. Even though there is only a limited Chinese American population residing in Oakland, Tzu-Chi's free healthcare program benefited a great number of low income residents there and truly showed Tzu-Chi's principles of helping the needy regardless of their complexion, religion, and race.

The next day, April 8th, the San Francisco office hosted a "Children's Dental Health Day" to provide dental care onsite. In addition to free dental clinics, two information sessions were also sponsored: one on family healthcare issues, and the other on children's dental care issues.

Sponsoring two days of healthcare events proved to be quite physically draining for us. However, when we thought about the five hundred plus families that benefited from these services, our happiness made the fatigue seemed rather insignificant.