| Love in Action |
People Thankful for Material
and Spiritual Relief By Formosa Relief Team (Originally in Chinese)
South-Eastern Coast Our relief team arrived at the most heavily stricken area, Cox’s Bazar District and Teknaf Town, where we received ready assistance from Mr. Ali Hussain, Mr. Juboraz and other kind-hearted locals. We also obtained information about the situation from Secretary of the Commissioner of Chittagong Division. We then purchased rice, millet, vegetable oil, sweets and mosquito nets to meet the emergency needs of 750 households and an orphanage in Teknaf. The top officials of Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong expressed their wholehearted gratitude for Supreme Master Ching Hai’s loving concern. Moulvibazar Our relief team reached Moulvibazar on May 28. With assistance from the local Red Crescent Society, we visited two households that were in desperate need of help. We purchased relief materials, which included rice, beans and soybean oil for the first family. The second family had lost five members, leaving only two girls and one of them had to leave school early to earn a living. From Master’s relief fund, our relief team provided school fees and living expenses to support her courageous goal of completing her studies. Southern Coast On May 30, our relief team arrived at Satkhira, 170 km away from the capital city of Dhaka. Some villages to the south of Satkhira were severely hit and people were in need of food and drinking water. Since the army had already started supplying large quantities of drinking water to the people, we concentrated on food supply. With the help of the Red Crescent, we purchased rice, beans, salt and oil, which we packed and transported to 14 of the most affected villages. During our distribution work, we met Mr. H.M. Golam Reza, M.P. of Bangladesh, who was inspecting the area. He was very grateful to Supreme Master Ching Hai and our Association, and invited us to travel on his boat to inspect other areas.
Along the Brahmaputra River
After contacting local police on July 11, we travelled throughout the night to the most severely affected district of Sunamganj. On July 12, with help from a local NGO—the Assistance for Slum Dwellers, we found out that a remote village was in desperate need of help. Working in cooperation with them, our relief team distributed supplies of rice, oil, lentils, salt and potatoes to 400 needy households. Later we met an individual who read our SOS flyer and wished to adopt the vegan diet, translate the flyer into the Bangla language, and have 10,000 copies printed for distribution! His enthusiasm and compassion moved us to tears. 
During this time, we learned the situation in Sirajganj was even worse and arrived there on July 13.
We confirmed that 4,000 households were affected in two heavily stricken areas in Ullapara and Raiganj. The next day, we packed the relief materials at an educational institute and then delivered them for distribution. To our delightful surprise, a professor agreed that the livestock industry is responsible for global warming and said that he had begun to adopt the vegan diet. Deeply touched by Master’s teachings and the SOS message on the flyer, he invited us to share the “Be Veg, Go Green, Save the Planet” message with all the university students! Observing that the institute was crudely equipped with some destitute students, we decided to contribute 30,000 Taka for student grants and equipment upgrades.
The relief operations were accomplished smoothly due to Master’s
most benevolent and loving blessing, bringing timely material relief
and spiritual consolation to distressed people in dire situations.
Expenditures by Supreme Master Ching Hai
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Bangladesh recently suffered a series of natural disasters in the months of April and May. First was the cyclonic storm Bijli that struck the south-eastern coast. Then came the landslide in Moulvibazar in the northeast, followed soon after by another strong cyclonic storm Aila on the southern coast. Following the arrival of the monsoon season in June, the Brahmaputra River flowing through India and Bangladesh rose sharply due to the deluge, which triggered mudslides along the river. Very much concerned about the people, Supreme Master Ching Hai made four allocations of relief funds. Relief teams formed by our Association members in Formosa, carrying Master’s great compassion and relief funds, went to the affected areas to help the people.
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