International Relief

Since 1991, the love of Tzu Chi people has been extended to victims of natural disasters and wars in other countries, such as mainland China, Bangladesh, South Africa, Guinea-Bissau, Nepal, Rwanda, Chechnya, Azerbaijan, Outer Mongolia, Ethiopia, northern Thailand, and Cambodia. We offer relief supplies, such as food, clothes, crop seeds, fertilizer, houses, nursing homes, schools, and so on.

We donated water pumps and diesel oil to Cambodia and built schools for refugees in northern Thailand. In Ethiopia, wells were dug, medicines were provided for refugees, and training courses for medical staff were taught. In each of these three countries, we planned three-year missions to help rebuild the communities. Tzu Chi has spread the love of Taiwanese people abroad, earning Taiwan a nickname of "the country with the most love." For 30 years, Tzu Chi has educated the rich, aided the poor, and replaced people's pain with happiness. We consider others' hunger as our own. We promote the spirit of compassion in Taiwan. We are actively involved in international relief work. We care for and provide food to victims. We light up the lives of needy people. We try our best to restore their confidence and courage. We pray for them and hope that they can leave pain behind and overcome hardship.

We promote international relief to solidify and practice the spirit of Buddha - great love. It activates the good nature of human beings - mutual help, peace and kindness. It promotes human beings' goals of perfection - goodness, beauty and truth. We carry out international relief work based on the following five principles:

Directness: We insist on personally distributing relief supplies into the hands of victims without going through any third party.

Priority: There are too many victims and disasters in the world, and our resources are very limited. So we are forced to offer our help and rebuild homes only for victims in the most devastated areas.

Respect: We respect the victims' lifestyles, customs, culture and traditions. We distribute relief supplies with gratitude and without expecting to receive anything in return, so that the victims' dignity will be maintained.

Timeliness: We provide victims with what they need when they need it the most. Though our resources are limited, their hearts will be warmed.

Conservation: We fully utilize every single dollar that people have donated.

In addition, we have the "Three No's" principles during relief distribution: no politics, no propaganda and no religion, especially in mainland China.