Four days prior to the Dragon Boat festival, the fragrance of dumplings permeated the Tzu Chi Free Clinic. The mouth-watering feast of vegetarian dumplings and fruit salad were the efforts of Tzu Ching (Tzu Chi Collegiate Youth Association) seniors and their mentors.
After a hiatus of six years, the Tzu Chi Foundation (Singapore branch) decided to organize once again, a gathering for SMU students, the difference this time being that the invitees were recipients of the Tzu Chi-SMU Bursary. Out of the 15 awardees this year, 5 attended the event. Though the participation rate was not high, this meant that there was a ratio of four Tzu Ching seniors and community volunteers to one student, and this made for a heart-warming session.
Understanding Recycling
“Please choose chocolates of three to five different colours!”
At the behest of the emcee, everyone gathered around a table to pick the coloured candy of their choice. Then, the screen displayed the theme of the group sharing; for example, those that picked the yellow candies had to share the happiest event in their lives, while those that picked blue had to share the saddest instance they had experienced.
During the ice-breakers, volunteers and the SMU students had a good time interacting with each other with some hitting it off like old friends. Since the start of the year, community volunteers and Tzu Ching seniors had formed themselves into small groups in a buddy system, making house visits every two months to understand the students’ home and living environments better. They also encouraged the students to take part in Tzu Ching activities as well as other community events, to give back to society.
Taking advantage of the school holidays, Tzu Ching personnel-in-charge Liu Jing Kuan organized the gathering to let the students get to know Tzu Chi better and become part of the big Tzu Ching family. Tzu Ching deputy contact person Zeng Cui Yi spoke on topics ranging from recycling, provision of free clinic services and care visits to institutions, all of which her audience listened to with interest.
Noting that the students had largely taken part in community recycling events, Tzu Ching recycling volunteer group leader Jiang Wei Jie shared with them how Tzu Chi’s Mission of Environmental Protection was kick-started: At the end of a public talk she gave in central Taiwan in 1990, Dharma Master Cheng Yen urged her audience to use the hands they were applauding her with to do recycling to protect the Earth.
Jiang also introduced and elaborated on related concepts and practices, such as eco-vegetarianism, “consuming 80% and donating 20% to help the needy,” “purity at source”, etc.
Nurturing New Shoots with Love and Patience
Tzu Ching seniors who had graduated from SMU also attended the event, sharing with them the history of Tzu Ching as well as personal anecdotes, to encourage them to do their bit for society.
Tzu Ching’s beginnings in SMU occurred in 2003, where it was the first Tzu Chi Collegiate Youth Association to be formed officially on a tertiary campus in Singapore. However, it closed down in 2010 due to insufficient numbers.
Fang Yu Ting, the founder of SMU’s Tzu Ching shared, “Since I entered the first year in university, I have been working hard to establish Tzu Ching on campus.” She recounted that it was not easy as while her peers were exploring campus life, her life revolved around the plans for Tzu Ching. She got inspiration from the Jing Si Aphorism : “Do not to underestimate yourself as your potential is limitless”. Fang, who is already a certified Tzu Chi commissioner, saw her dream materialize on her 19th birthday, the day Tzu Chi Collegiate Youth Association was established in her school.
Subsequently, Fang, with the support of her seniors, started to recruit members and Fu Yu Gui was one of them. Upon receiving the email invitation from Fang, she decided to attend the Tzu Ching camp in Malacca with a few friends and thus began participating in the association’s activities.
Fu shared the turning points of her life with her juniors and encouraged them to build positive affinities widely with those they met. Coming from a single-parent family, Fu used to work part-time when she first entered the university, hoping to lighten her mother’s financial burden. She expressed gratefulness to her lecturer, whom she credits with helping her find her first job.
“I’m still helping out with the (Tzu Chi) education team because I understand the importance of education to a student.” Having achieved some small measure of success in her career, Fu is today a role model for her juniors, and received warm applause from her listeners.
Both Fu and Fang hoped to spread the love of Tzu Chi, and after graduation, they volunteered to be part of the house visit team. They set up a mobile phone group for the SMU Tzu Chings and added in the five student attendees as part of their support efforts.
As Master Cheng Yen often says, “If it’s the right thing, just do it.” In the spirit of this motto, though the association had closed its chapter in SMU six years ago, the seeds had once again been sown in the hearts of its students, in the hopes that they would one day bear fruit on the university’s campus again.
During the university break, recipients of the Tzu Chi-SMU Bursary were invited to a gathering at the free clinic. (Photo by Zhou Zheng Yang)
A half hour before the event started, student Lv Wei Jian chipped in to help prepare lunch. (Photo by Zhou Zheng Yang)
The event was attended by five SMU students and 25 Tzu Ching seniors and community volunteers. (Photo by Zhou Zheng Yang)
During the ice breaker session, participants pick a candy color of their choice and introduced themselves according to the theme it represented. (Photo by Zhou Zheng Yang)
A student browsing a copy of the Tzu Chi Quarterly journal to find out more about the NGO’s work around the world (Photo by Zhou Zheng Yang)
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