Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation Ships
2,500 Tons of Rice to Iran
KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan -- 2,500
tons of rice left Kaohsiung Port on February 14 on its way
to Bandar Abbas Port, Iran. The shipment of rice is part of
Tzu Chi's relief project to quake-hit areas of Iran. To support
the humanitarian effort, Taiwan Council of Agriculture donated
the rice and Seven Ocean Maritime Transport Co., Ltd waived
the shipping fees. The rice is due to arrive in early March
and Tzu Chi will dispatch a relief team to personally distribute
the rice in time for Noruz, the Persian New Year.
To expedite the process, customs officials
and workers at a granary in Zhanghua County worked over the
weekend preparing the shipment. Over forty Tzu Chi volunteers
also devoted their day off to load the rice into the cargo
containers. Among them were female volunteers, as well as
an 81-year-old and a 74-year-old volunteer. Although many
volunteers admitted the work to be physically exhausting,
they nevertheless expressed joy for the opportunity to help
the quake survivors. "We aren't able to go on the relief
mission to Iran, so we're really glad we can take part this
way," one said. Though the work was taxing, they expressed
that their only wish was to allow the rice to reach the quake
survivors as early as possible.
During Tzu Chi's first relief mission to
Iran, the team noted that the local Iranians preferred to
eat long grain rice as opposed to the Taiwanese preference
for short grain rice. Therefore, the Taiwan Council of Agriculture
had to search all of its storage facilities for long grain
rice, and was just able to find enough to fill the large shipment.
On December 26, 2003, the earthquake
hit the Iranian city of Bam, killing at least 43,000 people
and injuring over 30,000. A Tzu Chi fact-finding and relief
team was dispatched to Bam on December 28 to assess the damage,
distribute emergency aid, and provide free medical services.
Over the Chinese New Year holiday, a second team continued
aid efforts and also met with government officials to plan
the rice distribution and discuss possibilities for reconstructing
schools in the quake-hit area. Currently, over ten thousand
quake survivors still live in tents and live on bread distributed
by international humanitarian organizations.
