Tzu Chi Foundation donates cash for building materials, livelihood

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — The disaster relief operation of the Tzu Chi Foundation, with the help of Gaisano from Cebu and hundreds of volunteers from around the world officially ended yesterday after it started on Nov. 13.

Thousands of Yolanda survivors in this city gathered over the past three days at various centers to avail themselves of cash assistance, distributed by Tzu Chi at Robinson's-Tacloban and then at San Jose Elementary School.

At least 10,000 families received the amounts of  P8,000, P12,000 and P15,000 each, depending on the number of family members. Thousands more got their share of the aid the following days until Dec. 16.

Tzu Chi told The Freeman that it intended to give cash donations to 40,000 people in the city for them to buy building materials and start a livelihood. The foundation set aside close to P100 million in cash for the purpose, and provided medical services to city residents and cash-for-work program for its plan to build modular classrooms soon.

Angeline Asoy 31 year old a resident of Barangay 83 in San Jose district of Tacloban told The Freeman that Tzu Chi helped her family set up for a normal life. "I couldn't believe that my family received P15,000 from Tzu Chi. At first I thought it was just an ordinary relief goods distribution that my family was about to receive. All I can say to Tzu Chi, Merry Christmas po," she said as she broke into tears after receiving the cash aid.

Earlier in Ormoc City, a total of 9,000 families received goods and cash assistance from Tzu Chi, which also built 53 temporary classrooms. In Tunga town of Leyte, 1,750 families got cash aid and 12 temporary classrooms were constructed, while in Dulag town, also in Leyte, 2,000 families received relief goods and seven temporary classrooms were built.

Over the past 19 days in Tacloban, a total of 300,000 man-days were spent for the cash-for-work program in the clearing and disposal of debris around the city, using 40 dump trucks, 10 pay loaders and two backhoes.

Tzu Chi Foundation is an international humanitarian organization founded with a group of 30 housewives by Dharma Master Cheng Yen, a Buddhist nun, on May 14, 1966 in a mountainous village of Hualien in Taiwan. It later became a major group with about 10 million members and chapters in 47 countries, including the Philippines where it has been doing humanitarian works over the past 20 years. — (FREEMAN)