Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation

Tzu Chi volunteers from Mexico and the United States went to help residents of northern Mexico, which was struck by a powerful earthquake, delivering food and blankets. The quake, measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale, struck the region of Mexicali on April 4; the city is the capital of Baja California, the region of northern Mexico that borders California.

Volunteers from Mexicali were joined by their colleagues from the foundation’s U.S. headquarters in Los Angeles to survey the needs of those worst affected. They went to the town of Delta which had been badly hit. During the survey, they distributed 53 liters of water, 15 boxes of instant noodles, seven boxes of instant rice and 90 blankets.

Zeng Duowen, a reporter with the foundation’s Great Love television channel, said that the tremor had damaged the cooling system of a geothermal power plant, eight kilometers away, flooding the town with water. “The water was contaminated with sulfur and a dirty orange color. Ironically, despite such a serious flood, Delta is one of the five towns in the area where the water supply was cut by the quake.”

They found 3,200 residents were sleeping in cars or tents, in fear of more tremors or because they had lost their homes. One of them was David Rosas: “I have been sleeping in my car since the tremor knocked down my home. I last had a shower on Saturday, before the earthquake. Now there is no water to use because the pipe was broken.”

The volunteers decided to return to the town for a second visit. Volunteer Silvia Bernal said that they would come back on Saturday (April 10). “We are going to have a food distribution to about 450 people who need it.”

It was an exhausting day for the volunteers but they left in a light-hearted mood. The situation after the quake was not as bad as they had expected and the survivors will soon receive the help they need.

Life Wisdom: 04/13/2010 Sowing Seeds of Love in Places of Suffering