2001 TIMA Annual Conference
TAICHUNG, TAIWAN - Tzu Chi International
Medical Association doctors confer to share experiences and
plan for the future.
The annual conference of the Tzu Chi International
Medical Association (TIMA) for 2001 began on December 27 in
Taichung, Taiwan, with 267 participants from six nations.
During the six-day conference, the doctors will visit Tzu
Chi missions across Taiwan and discuss issues of basic clinical
care, health education in developing nations, and the roles
of medical professionals.
TIMA was founded in 1996 and currently has
two thousand members in seventeen branch offices around the
world. The organization provides assistance to impoverished
patients across the globe, and has served 217,000 patients
to date.
TIMA members confer every year to exchange
experiences and to coordinate international projects and resource
sharing. This year, members attending the annual conference
come from the United States, Brazil, Singapore, Philippines,
Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Southern California
The Tzu Chi Free Clinic in Southern California has served
the community since 1993. It now has over eighty volunteer
doctors of Hispanic, Asian, and Caucasian descent. The doctors
take shifts in the clinic's office during weekdays and regularly
tour city neighborhoods in a mobile clinic. They also hold
free clinics in Mexico and are expanding service to Indian
reservations this year.
Philippines
Since 1995, TIMA Philippines has held four free clinics every
year and served over 100,000 patients in a surgery-capable
mobile hospital. After surgeries, doctors personally carry
patients to the recovery area.
Brazil
In the past five years, the eighty doctors of TIMA Brazil
have held 48 free clinics in São Paulo and its surrounding
areas. They have served over 30,000 patients.
Taiwan
TIMA Taiwan has seven free clinic teams that tour remote regions
of the island. They serve homeless folks, aboriginal Taiwanese,
senior citizens with no families, and special care cases.
