Together We Stand

[ 89 ] Image: Tzu Chi volunteer, 2012 Image: Tzu Chi Volunteer, 2016 Schoolchildren in South Africa benefit from Tzu Chi’s donation of basic school supplies and books to promote education Tzu Chi Foundation distributes their Jing-Si multipurpose folding beds to provide comfort to disaster survivors and vulnerable populations worldwide The struggles faced by refugees, especially the school-aged children, may have deep, long-lasting and damaging impli- cations on their psychosocial and emotional well-being. To alleviate some of the refugees’ struggles, school-aged Syrian refugees at the two campuses of the Menahal primary and secondary school are provided with financial aid to attend school, their families given financial subsidies so that the chil- dren can have the opportunity to go to school and not have to work, and are given stationery supplies and toys, which are considered luxuries by refugees. Although considered luxu- ries, they serve to show children and their families that they are more than just refugees, that they still have their dignity and are not forgotten. Moreover, investment in education, often neglected in humanitarian assistance funding, is vital for integration. Economic, social and cultural integration, all of which is arguably rooted in education, is, as directed by UNHCR during its annual non-governmental organization consultations, the strongest and most durable long-term solu- tion to the refugee crisis. For a society and its people to sustain and progress, educa- tion must be placed at the forefront of investment. With this understanding, as with the provision of tuition funding and educational programmes for refugee populations, Tzu Chi has implemented long-term projects which benefit various communities in Haiti. Following the earthquake in 2010 the organization, recognizing that women and children are more often in positions of vulnerability yet are key to long-term communal and societal success, began the reconstruction of multiple schools including the College of Marie-Anne and Christ the King Secretarial School for Girls, an interfaith humanitarian collaboration with Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Anne who now operate the school. Often it is women who shoulder the extra burden when their families or their societies are facing tremendous difficulties like suffering poverty or surviving a disaster, and in order to help a commu- nity and society recover more efficiently, more attention must be placed upon assisting mothers, daughters and sisters. Education is an endeavour that continues well into adult- hood, and the way in which adults can receive education that helps generate income and improve quality of life is through vocational schools and training. In South Africa and Honduras, where another Tzu Chi school for children has been built, vocational schools and trainings are also built and imple- mented for adults. In South Africa, women from Zulu villages, most from vulnerable and often dysfunctional backgrounds, attended Tzu Chi’s vocational schools — mainly sewing and making handicrafts. They are now volunteers themselves who not only help run the organization’s vocational schools, but also lead in humanitarian projects to help those even less fortunate in South Africa and neighbouring countries, further continuing the cycle of growth and progress. In each of Tzu Chi’s programmes, whether it be a distribu- tion in Sierra Leone, a school and medical outreach in Haiti, Thailand or Nepal, or a vocational school in South Africa and Honduras, each distribution, each donation is given with two hands and a bow. This is done not merely as a sign of humil- ity, but as an acknowledgement of humanity, an expression of sincerity and connectedness, of dignity — that no matter who it may be, whether giver or receiver, all are the same, each just living a different life in a different body. It is with this defini- tion and view of dignity that Tzu Chi carries forth and holds true in its humanitarian projects. T ogether W e S tand