May 1, 2001

Chinese Version

Tzu Chi San Francisco office and the Oakland Head Start program joined forces to hold a free clinic at the Eastmont Mall in east Oakland
Translated by Kevin Chou
Proofread by Alice Li

On April 7, the Tzu Chi San Francisco office and the Oakland Head Start program joined forces to hold a free clinic at the Eastmont Mall in east Oakland. Lines of parents with their children rushed into the mall when it opened at ten that morning to register for free health care services. In addition to dental care, the clinic provided blood sugar tests, cholesterol tests, asthma exams, obstetric exams, chiropractic and acupuncture. Of particular interest was the dental van provided by the Tzu Chi Free Clinic in southern California. This van is capable of functioning as a complete dental office, providing dental cleaning, tooth removal, and even 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. An African-American couple, Mr. and Mrs. Philphe, also remarked that the free clinic really provided a great service to them. Even though there is only a limited Chinese-American population in Oakland, Tzu Chi's free health care program benefited a great number of low-income residents there and truly showed the Tzu Chi principle of helping the needy regardless of their color, religion or race.

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

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