Sister Guan and esteemed Tzu Chi volunteers, Ambassador Chang de Tseng, Madame Sawadogo, Christi, Christine, WTIC Members, Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is a pleasure for us to have the opportunity to visit the Tzu Chi Foundation’s Neihu Recycling Station and to learn how it carries out recycling by “transforming garbage into gold, and gold into love.” On behalf of the Welcome to Taipei International Club board of directors and members, I would like to express our most sincere gratitude to our Tzu Chi volunteer sisters for generously arranging this visit. Thank you very much!

The Tzu Chi Foundation was founded by Darma Master Cheng Yen in 1966. After 45 years, the foundation has grown into an international network of volunteers with more than 10 million members in 47 countries throughout 5 continents. And it has provided medical, educational, humanitarian and cultural services to people in over 70 countries or areas. 

When my husband, Timothy Yang, was Taiwan’s representative to Australia, we lived in Canberra. At that time, Canberra suffered some very serious bushfires that destroyed more than 500 houses. Many people became homeless as a result. During that difficult period, Tzu Chi’s volunteers rushed to Canberra from Melbourne and Sydney to assist the city and its residents recover from the damage. They even brought their own food and water so as not to cause any further problems for the victims, which shows their true compassion and desire to help. 

Before my husband was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, he served as Taiwan’s representative to Indonesia. And prior to our departure for Jakarta, we had the good fortune to receive blessings in person from Darma Master Cheng Yen in Hualien.  She told us that, although we would be staying on someone else’s land, we should take care of it as if it were our own, and that we should always try our best to give something back in return to the society of our host country in the spirit of gratitude.

While in Jakarta, we witnessed how Tzu Chi volunteers contributed to cleaning up the infamously polluted Angke River, which is also known as the Red River. Tzu Chi even built a Da Ai Village in Jakarta for those Indonesians who were relocated from the Angke River slum. There are schools and a hospital in the village, to help provide educational and medical services. Tzu Chi also built a mosque in Da Ai Village for the locals to pray and gather in.

Ladies, today we have with us members from more than 16 countries or areas, including Austria, Burkina Faso, Chile, El Salvador, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand and the USA. I am sure that there are many Tzu Chi volunteers to be found in your countries, quietly and selflessly dedicating themselves to helping others. Some of you might even have your own Tzu Chi stories to tell as well.

Well, I’m aware that a half-day trip is not enough to understand all that Tzu Chi gives to the international community and to humankind. However, we are pleased that we got started today, and I hope that we will have more opportunities in the future to learn more about Tzu Chi’s contributions.

In the meantime, I want to present the Tzu Chi Neihu Recycling Station with a letter of gratitude and a small donation from the WTIC members and board of directors.

I would like to end now by wishing everyone peace and good health.

Thank you very much!