Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation

Tzu Chi hopes to improve education in Lumbini, the hometown of Buddha in Nepal.

School Supplies

Since December 16, Tzu Chi has donated 1,964 school supplies to six public primary schools in Lumbini. They include school bags (large, medium and small), pencil cases, pencils, pencil rolls, ballpoint pens, rubber bands, rulers, exercise books, shoes (21 sizes), and sweaters (8 sizes).

Among them, the cloth pencil bag is the most special. It contains the love of many people because the volunteers traveled everywhere to search for cloth to sew the pencil bags. They invited many people to complete this unique gift together.

Looking for Partners

To prepare stationery for local students, volunteers searched for stores willing to cooperate in Bhairahawa City to provide resources. At night in commercial street, they were busy visiting fabric merchants. They showed a cloth shop owner a piece of cloth and told him: "We are Tzu Chi volunteers looking for this fabric and making pencil bags to distribute to students in Lumbini. This is charity work."

The owner of the shop said: "I see Tzu Chi volunteers come from a distant country to help my community. This is my responsibility and my task is to be a negotiator to help them and other people who are willing to participate in the construction of Lumbini.” He then became the school bag supplier of the school distribution this time.

Tzu Chi volunteers shared their idea with shop owners: "We want to use rags to sew and make souvenirs for the children. This is your assistance to us and a contribution to your community."

The owner of another cloth shop said: "You are here to help those children who cannot afford stationery. We are the people who live here, so it should be us who are providing cloth for the children." He became one of the suppliers of pencil bags.

The volunteers met a man named Gore, who once worked in Malaysia; his wife is a skilled tailor. They invited the two to sew pencil bags, and this order gave the family extra income.

Gore said gratefully: "Tzu Chi gave my wife the sewing work. My relatives also came to help her. We sewed pencil bags and gave them to the students. I want to say thank you to Tzu Chi."

For the final packing of stationery, volunteers invited local residents to participate and feel the joy of helping others.

Jing Si Aphorism says: “The real happiness is the tranquility, comfort and joy after giving of ourselves.”

Join Tzu Chi. Let us enjoy the real happiness together.

Article: Unish Khyaju and Guo Liang-ming from Nepal