Tzu Chi provides financial, medical, spiritual, and other services in times of need. Family services include short-term and long-term support. Volunteers assist around 2000 needy families in the United States annually. Among them, some have been cared continuously for more than a decade.

Disaster Relief

Tzu Chi provides assistance to survivors of fire, earthquake and flood disasters. Volunteers give out emergency cash and relief supplies within days of a disaster. Tzu Chi assisted survivors during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the 9/11 attacks in New York, the 2003 Southern California wildfires, Hurricane Isabelle in 2003, Hurricane Charlie in 2004, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Yucca Valley and Esperanza Fires in 2006, Alabama Enterprise Tornado, North Texas Flood, South Lake Tahoe Fire, Brooklyn Tornado, Minnesota Flash Flood, Ohio Flood and Southern California Wildfires in 2007, Arkansas Tornado in 2008 and the Midwest flood disaster. To date, Tzu Chi has distributed emergency cash totaling $2 million dollars, blankets, and daily necessities in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in June 2008.

Home Visits

Group visits provide companionship for seniors when Tzu Chi members visit neighborhood convalescent homes and senior homes. Volunteers also visit numerous long-term care facilities across the U.S., such as the Ronald McDonald House in Minneapolis, MN; Los Angeles and Pasadena, CA; Falls Church, VA; and Baltimore, MD and Washington DC and many others.

Homeless Services

Volunteers provide various services for the homeless, including serving meals on a regular basis, in cities such as New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Phoenix, Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis and Honolulu.

Community Support Program

The community support program works with neighborhood organizations to help the needy. Tzu Chi provides financial assistance and daily necessities for families who cannot afford the most basic needs.

International Disaster Relief

Tzu Chi USA began its first international relief mission in Mexico in 1994. Since then, volunteers have provided humanitarian aid and medical services in Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Columbia, Guatemala, EI Salvador, Peru, Mexico, Haiti, and Afghanistan. In 2005, volunteer doctors traveled to Sri Lanka to provide free medical care for tsunami survivors. In 2007, Tzu Chi members from all over the country engaged in disaster relief efforts in Bolivia, Peru and Dominican Republic. 

The Buddhist Tzu Chi Free Clinic in Alhambra, California provides free medical services, acupuncture and dental care for low-income families and people without medical insurance. The Free Clinic in Honolulu is open during evening hours to provide medical care. These clinics deliver quality services to 12,000 patients annually.

The Tzu Chi Community Clinic in S. El Monte, California is a primary health care facility whose purpose is to provide high quality medical and alternative medicine services at reasonable costs to individuals and families in the area. The Community Clinic is dedicated to responding to community needs, particularly those of low income patients.

The Tzu Chi Dental Community Clinic, located adjacent to the Community Clinic in South El Monte, California opened in March of 2008. The Clinic strives to provide high quality and low cost dental services to low-income families.

Medical outreach programs and health fairs provide free services to people in remote and impoverished areas, promoting community health and wellness through consultation, seminars and activities.

Mobile dental vans are located in Alhambra, New York, and San Jose. They provide free dental services during outreach missions as well as dental care to local low income area elementary schools. Each of the three mobile vans is equipped with dental chairs, digital X-ray machines, and sterilizing equipment, making them each a full dental clinic on wheels.

Support groups for individuals suffering from cancer, diabetes, or undergoing dialysis are organized by the Tzu Chi Free Clinic and supported by volunteers and doctors. Groups meet regularly to facilitate a forum where patients and family members can exchange their experiences in spiritual, financial, and medical matters.

The Tzu Chi International Medical Association (TIMA) is made up of more than 5,000 medical professionals worldwide who volunteer their expertise and time to provide quality medical services both in their own communities, whether urban or rural, and worldwide. TIMA USA has 21 chapters in the United States. TIMA chapters are also located in Hualien, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Paraguay and Brazil. During a major disaster, TIMA members from different parts of the world team up to provide medical service to those in need in an effective, respectful and compassionate manner.

The Tzu Chi Marrow Donor and Stem Cell Research Center located in Hualien, is an independent medical institution that manages one of the world’s largest Asian marrow donor and stem cell tissue registries. As of January 31, 2008, more than 307,657 people had registered as potential marrow donors.

In its education principles, Tzu Chi emphasizes “Kindness, Compassion, Joy and Unselfish Giving,” which are based on Buddha’s teachings of the Four Immeasurable.

Tzu Chi Academy

There are 19 Tzu Chi Academies in the United States. The Academies are weekend Chinese schools formed on the principles of gratitude, respect, and love. Besides teaching the Chinese language and culture, all schools emphasize Still Thoughts education and humanitarian classes, including flower arrangement, tea ceremony, recycling, as well as participation in community service activities such as regular visits to nursing homes and disabled children’s’ centers.

Tzu Chi Parent Child Program

The parent-child growth class is offered once a month for children and parents to attend together. In this class, they learn to love and respect each other as individuals. It is hoped that this group activity will bring each family happiness and peace, which will then be extended to society.

The Tzu Chi Great Love Preschool and Kindergarten was founded in 2006. The opening of this school was an important landmark for the Tzu Chi mission of education and a new milestone in the development of a complete Tzu Chi education process. Its mission is to provide students with a rich and rewarding educational experience that will enhance their academic learning and develop their inner strength.

Community Classes

Every Tzu Chi branch office also serves as a spiritual Buddhist temple. It is a shared space for everyone, a training ground for the practices of Buddha’s teachings, and a community education center. Various programs are offered at the branch offices, including the Art of Tea Ceremony, Flower Arrangement, Chinese Calligraphy, Vegetarian Cuisine Arts, Beginning Chinese Class and Parents and Children’s Camps.

Tzu Chi Teachers’ Association

In the United States, Tzu Chi has established the U.S. Tzu Chi Teachers’ Association in support of teachers and staff members from the Tzu Chi Academies, and the Tzu Chi Great Love Preschool and Kindergarten. The Association helps its members in bringing Tzu Chi’s humanitarian education to the member schools and local communities.

Collaborations with Local Communities

For the past ten years, Tzu Chi has been providing various educational services for the Morita Tzu Chi Elementary School in Tijuana. We offer scholarship and school supplies to the students. In 2006, Tzu Chi collaborated with the local government to build classrooms, libraries and the community vocational training center.

The Tzu Chi Culture is the essence of Tzu Chi volunteers’ experience. The Cultural Mission takes on the responsibility of spreading the culture of Tzu Chi, purifying people’s minds, as well as documenting the history of Tzu Chi bodhisattva path. These tasks are accomplished through publishing, TV broadcasting, as well as Tzu Chi’s Chinese/English website.

Tzu Chi volunteers in the U.S. are actively involved in their local communities, including environmental protection work such as recycling, street sweeping, adopting parks, and beautifying cities. Working with local residents, they engage and motivate others and put in motion a cycle of love and good deeds. Tzu Chi volunteers are carrying out Buddha’s teachings of great compassion to help all suffering beings.

Radio and Da Ai TV

Master Cheng Yen believes that every person can make this world a better place, by purifying one’s own heart and mind. As such, Da Ai TV Station was founded in 1995. It broadcasts true stories of love and goodness to rekindle one’s compassion, inspiring people to do good deeds and to allow the force of goodness to become the mainstream in the world. Da Ai TV has become a major influential media in Hualien. With advancement in broadcasting technology, the American audience can now watch Da Ai programs through cable, satellite and IP TV on the Internet.

Publication

The first issue of the Tzu Chi USA Journal (Chinese version) was published in 1990. The Journal covered Tzu Chi’s various activities held throughout the U.S. and touching stories experienced by Tzu Chi volunteers, and how they brought out the principles and spirit of Tzu Chi’s founder Master Cheng Yen. In Houston, Austin and Las Vegas, articles were published in local newspapers to tell the Tzu Chi story. The locally produced Tzu Chi Newsletters have been the best form of communication between Tzu Chi and its members.

The first issue of the English quarterly “Tzu Chi USA Journal” was published in 2002. The Journal has since become an important gateway to Tzu Chi news for non-Chinese readers.

Tzu Chi USA Web Site

In 2007, Tzu Chi USA launched its English Website at www.us.tzuchi.org, reporting on major Tzu Chi news and upcoming events from across the country. The website also contains special reports, disaster alerts, as well as English Jing Si Aphorisms.

Jing Si Café and Bookstores

Since 2002, Jing Si Café and Bookstores have opened their doors to visitors at the US Headquarters in Los Angeles and at local offices in New Jersey, New York, Dallas and Chicago. In addition, there are Jing Si cafés opened for operation in 21 cities. People can go to the cafés for coffee or tea while enjoying books written by Dharma Master Cheng Yen as well as other books published by Tzu Chi. The serene atmosphere will calm and enrich your spirit. Books and periodicals published by Tzu Chi are also available at 120 public libraries throughout the U.S.