Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation

“Your school shoes are worn out. Why not buy a new pair?” asked the volunteer as she was measuring the student. The student replied: “because my father has no money.” Another girl said: “because my mother has no work.” Broken shoes and old school uniforms were all they had. Therefore, the volunteers were eager to help them to meet their basic needs.

As part of the Happy Campus Program, volunteers in Malaysia went to three Tamil primary schools, Malacca and distributed new school shoes and uniforms to 94 students of low incomes family.

The vice-principal of the SJK(T)Pekan Tebong (Tamil School) was moved to see the enthusiasm of the volunteers. She said: “the vast majority of students come from poor families. The incomes of their parents are low. As a result, the children in a family pass their uniforms to each other or wear old ones. So we are very grateful to Tzu Chi for this assistance.”

The volunteer in charge of obtain the uniforms was Zheng Shun-yan. She took the measurements of the students and returned to her shop, when she carefully chose outfits that fitted each student. “I saw that their uniforms are very old, tight and short. They do not fit them. It was very sad. Some of them only have one shirt.” she said.

A week later, the volunteers returned to the school and gave out the new uniforms. For the last six years, a girl has only have second hand clothing; that day, she was finally able to change into a new one. When she was asked how she felt, she replied with a shy smile: “happy!”

When she saw the smiles of the students, volunteer Zhang Shun-yan said: “when we see how well the uniforms suit them and how they fit them so well, we feel very happy.”

This is the Happy Campus Program of the Tzu Chi Foundation in Malaysia. It was the first time to provide school uniforms and shoes. With joyfulness, students held their new uniforms and said “Thank you, Tzu Chi!”.

Report by Lu Jia-jia and Zhong Jian-ming in Malaysia February 3, 2014)