Together We Stand

[ 87 ] and their humanity taken away by situations beyond their control. By sleeping on the beds rather than on the ground, recipients no longer feel dehumanized, and their dignity becomes strengthened. In Sierra Leone, during the Ebola outbreak of 2014, Tzu Chi delivered these beds to govern- ment hospitals, among other supplies. Again, the donations were handed out with two hands and a bow. “Other charity organizations were fearful of the Ebola patients and took every precaution to avoid contamination, wearing hazmat suits, gloves, and using hand sanitizers while interacting with the people — even those who were not infected by the virus,” recounts Stephen Fomba, Tzu Chi’s West Africa project manager, who is himself Sierra Leonean. “It made the people uncomfortable, especially the Ebola orphans who, despite enduring a month in quarantine, had no human contact since losing their parents to the deadly disease. We came in without wearing all this protective gear. We gave them hugs, and we gave them that comfort they so desperately needed.” Aid projects are designed around the belief of preserv- ing dignity, of having that compassionate humanistic touch, where humanism and egalitarianism are practiced with a special consideration to vulnerable populations, and where the dignity of disaster survivors is upheld at the forefront of all the projects implemented. It is a holistic approach to providing humanitarian aid. This type of all-encompassing approach begins with the provision of the most basic human needs — water, food and shelter. During relief efforts, aside from the organization’s own philosophical and spiritually based methods for aid, Tzu Chi also uses and follows the standards and guidelines of the Sphere Project, which, “puts the right of disaster-affected populations to life with dignity, and to protection and assistance at the centre of humani- tarian action,” and “promotes the active participation of affected populations.” These approaches are parallel with Tzu Chi’s methods and ideals, which emphasize the empow- erment of local communities while building their capacity to achieve sustainability, autonomy and self-reliance. It is ultimately in these virtues where the organization concep- tualizes what dignity is. This emphasis on the autonomy of communities served is reflected in Tzu Chi’s Cash for Relief programme which is implemented in all of the organization’s relief missions. It enables local community members to participate in relief activities, helping in various aid activities from general distribution to the construction of shelters and classrooms, empowering them to become givers rather than just receiv- ers. In return, the participants are given a stipend, with a cash amount determined by an assessment team that takes into consideration their wages before the disaster, in addi- tion to the amount they require to return to normalcy in their evaluations. In Nepal following the Gorkha Earthquake in 2015, for example, Tzu Chi volunteers worked with the local Nepalese in a ‘train the trainer’ programmatic model, providing the local Nepalese population with water, sani- tation and hygiene (WASH) education and teaching them how to build prefab classrooms and shelters, utilizing their skills so that they can become autonomous and in turn go back to their local communities and teach them. Following the earthquake, Tzu Chi volunteers have worked with the local population to build various schools in Kathmandu and surrounding regions. With the help of recruited local volun- teers working and learning under Tzu Chi’s construction team, the organization has undergone up to 50 construction and rebuilding projects at schools, hospitals, small busi- nesses and religious institutions since June 2015. Since that time, the organization’s construction team has implemented On Christmas day in Jordan, Tzu Chi volunteers bring school stationery and supplies to children at a new Syrian refugee camp Image: Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation T ogether W e S tand