Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation

On December 3, volunteers, teachers, and students of a learning centre in Selayang, Selangor, Malaysia worked together to complete the relocation of the facility within six hours.

Affinity

In 2004, United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) made Tzu Chi a partner and gave it a mission to run a pre-school education center for refugees and medical outreach for refugees in Malaysia. After that, several education centers were set up one after another.

Selayang Old Learning Centre

One is located in Selayang, Selangor, Malaysia; refugees gather and live there. The UNHCR Tzu-Chi Harmony Alternative Learning Centre provides opportunities for refugee children to receive basic education.

However, as time passed, the building safety and environment of the learning center no longer met the needs of the refugees. It was small and could only accommodate about 200 students. Its poor air circulation and hygiene were not ideal for students in the post-pandemic period.

Therefore, hoping to improve the learning environment of the children, Kuala Lumpur Tzu-Chi found another building for the center.

New Place

The new building has a more comfortable and safer learning environment. It can accommodate nearly 400 students, allowing more refugee children to study. It is on the second, third and fourth floors of a red-yellow building. Volunteers carried upstairs in relays pieces of equipment; this was fast and lightened the burden on each person.

They carried heavy objects on the narrow stairs very carefully. One volunteer said: "It is good to be a volunteer to help them, because we can practice good deeds through words, thoughts, and actions to help the refugee children here."

Tzu Chi Youth Zhong Qian-huang (鐘婧䊵) said: "The teachers and students are also very attentive. Every table, chair, computer, and TV is labeled with its floor and room number. It helped us finish the work quickly."

More Hope

Tzu Chi volunteer Lin Tai-shen (林泰伸) said: "Refugee children really like to study, but the classroom space was limited. Now the environment here is very good and the air circulates well. It looks like a school."

On December 3, volunteers, teachers, and students of the learning centre -- in total about 100 people -- worked together to complete the relocation of the school building within six hours. Hopefully, more refugee children will come here and receive better education in the future.

Master Cheng Yen, founder of Tzu Chi, says that education is hope, the hope of children, families, and society, and most importantly, the hope of the whole world.

Let us work on a better world for the future through education.

Join Tzu Chi; let us do it.

Article by Huang Ju-cheng from Malaysia