Tzu Chi Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded by Dharma Master Cheng Yen in Taiwan and the world’s largest Buddhist charity celebrates its 43rd anniversary this year. Tzu Chi means “serving with compassion” in Chinese and the NGO runs a hospital, mobile medical services, international relief operations, recycling centres, a TV and radio station and advocates ‘socially-engaged Buddhism’ through community volunteerism. Tzu Chi volunteers work all over the world – from providing free medical care in the US, distributing emergency supplies in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, to work in Afghanistan, Myanmar and mainland China.

In March this year, two representatives of the U.S. based Food For the Poor (FFP) charity organization, during a visit to the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, hailed the foundation as a model for all other non governmental organizations.

Jose Serra, vice president of FFP’s International Funding Department, and Jorge Benitez, vice president of FFP’s International Goods in Kind Department, paid a call on Dharma Master Cheng Yen, founder of the Tzu Chi Foundation based in eastern Taiwan’s Hualien County.

Serra and Benitez expressed admiration for Tzu Chi’s efforts to provide aid to poor people around the world, regardless of religion or ethnicity. They also highly endorsed Master Cheng Yen’s approach of teaching people to lead healthy and sound lives even in poverty.

They voiced hope that FFP and the Tzu Chi Foundation could cooperate in the near future, as the two groups share the same mission of extending help to people in need.

The Tzu Chi bone marrow registry, a division of the Tzu Chi Stem Cells Center, is the largest marrow donor registry in Asia and the fifth largest in the world. Tzu center’s registry consists of information about 350,000 potential bone marrow donors and 11,000 units of umbilical cord blood.

In May last year, Tzu Chi donated 500 million yuan (US$73.53 million) in financial assistance to Wenchuan, the earthquake epicenter. Tzu Chi volunteers went worldwide to help survivors of the Sichuan quake. They went to 1,900 locations in 23 countries, going out onto the streets with donation boxes.