Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation’s Dental Outreach Earns Smiles in Jordan

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Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation’s Dental Outreach Earns Smiles in Jordan

By Craig C Lewis
July 26, 2024

Tzu Chi Jordan treated 39 residents of remote Abasiya in their June outreach. Photo by Chiou-hwa Chen. Image courtesy of Tzu Chi

The Taiwan-headquartered global charity and humanitarian organization Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation reported that its dedicated dental team has garnered smiles among impoverished communities living in Jordan’s desert region of Abasiya, thanks to a free clinic that it organized in late June.

Tzu Chi volunteers have been offering compassionate relief to Bedouin nomad communities, such as those in the Abasiya tent settlement in southern Jordan, 273 kilometers from the capital Amman. “Tzu Chi has supported the Abasiya tent settlement since February 2002, organizing large-scale distributions twice a year during Ramadan and winter, providing essentials like rice, sugar, beans, and oil,” Tzu Chi said in a report shared with BDG. “Every August, they distribute school bags and stationery.

“Since November 2017, Chiou-hwa Chen, chief executive of Tzu Chi Jordan, secured funding from Tzu Chi’s headquarters in Taiwan to cover breakfast and classroom gas expenses for the children. Furthermore, the long-standing scholarship program for impoverished students since 2009 has yielded success stories, such as Mohammad Almanajaa, who in 2022 . . . attained a score of 95 for his university entrance exam, allowing him to enter university to study accounting. His story success continues to inspire children in the desert.” (Tzu Chi Foundation)

Dr. Amjad, center, with his two children, who are dental assistants. Photo by Chiou-hwa Chen. Image courtesy of Tzu Chi

Some dentists took personal leave from their clinics to join the mission. Image courtesy of Tzu Chi

A team leader on numerous Tzi Chi projects in Jordan, Chen remarked, “We are grateful to Master Cheng Yen for creating the Tzu Chi world, allowing dental teams to serve in the Abasiya tent area for over 22 years, easing dental suffering.” (Tzu Chi Foundation)

Because of the long distance from Amman to Abasiya, the medical team and Tzu Chi volunteers began their journey at noon on 27 June, spending a night in the Wadi Rum desert to ensure they’d have a full day on 28 June to provide medical attention for the local community. Meanwhile, three volunteers transporting dental equipment for the clinic had to leave Amman at 3:30 a.m.

“Today, we’re in a very impoverished area far from Amman, where medical care is usually insufficient” said Dr. Amjad Othman on 28 June. He had traveled to the remote region hoping to offer as much help as possible, together with his son and daughter, both dental assistants, adding: “We’re here with Tzu Chi to serve them.” (Tzu Chi Foundation)

Volunteer Khader Khalifa, front left, assists with check-ins while sharing Tzu Chi’s mission and introducing Master Cheng Yen. Photo by Chiou-hwa Chen. Image courtesy of Tzu Chi

Dr. Amjad, third right, and his team provide free treatments in refugee camps and Tzu Chi’s desert missions. Photo by Chiou-hwa Chen. Image courtesy of Tzu Chi

Dr. Amjad is the chair of the Jordan Dental Association and coordinates emergency dental care for Jordan’s Ministry of Health. He and his medical team also provide free treatment at refugee camps. With approval from Chiou-hwa Chen, Tzu Chi provides removable dentures for residents without teeth.

“This area requires at least two dental outreaches every year because the demand is simply overwhelming!” Dr. Amjad noted. He also expressed appreciation for Tzu Chi’s provision of transportation and medical expenses for those patients in need of follow-up treatment at medical facilities in Amman. (Tzu Chi Foundation)

Tzu Chi has offered poverty relief and humanitarian assistance in Jordan for more than 25 years, including supporting a sizable refugee population. Although it has a population of just 11 million people, Jordan serves as a refuge for people fleeing conflict and persecution in nearby countries, including Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Many of these refugees, who now number around three million, are housed in huge camps some 150 kilometers from the capital Amman.*

Among other initiatives supported by Tzu Chi in the country, the foundation has sponsored the education of at least 155 Syrian school children and 30 Syrian and 30 Jordanian university students in recent years. The organization is also supporting a community education center that promotes recycling and the use of recyclables in arts and handicrafts, such as making furniture out of used pallets or turning used clothes into paintings. Such activities are not only aimed at teaching the children to value the Earth’s finite resources, but also to provide training in cooperation and teamwork.

The Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, Republic of China, more widely known as the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, was founded in Taiwan in 1966 by the Buddhist nun and Dharma teacher Master Cheng Yen. With a focus on “putting compassion into action,” the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation is a UN-accredited NGO with some 10 million supporters and 432 offices worldwide across 51 countries, undertaking regular activities in the fields of humanitarian aid, medical care, education, and environmental sustainability.

As a global icon of socially engaged Buddhism, Master Cheng Yen has expressed a deeply held belief that all people are capable of manifesting the same great compassion as the Buddha. She has noted that true compassion is not simply feeling sympathy for the suffering of others, but is found in reaching out to relieve suffering with concrete action.

Master Cheng Yen is popularly known in Taiwan as one of the “Four Heavenly Kings” of Buddhism, the others being: Master Sheng Yen, founder of Dharma Drum Mountain; Master Hsing Yun, founder of Fo Guang Shan; and Master Wei Chueh, founder of Chung Tai Shan. These four global Buddhist orders, correspondingly known as the “Four Great Mountains,” have grown to become among the most influential Chinese Buddhist organizations in the world.

* Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation Marks 25 Years of Poverty Relief and Refugee Aid in Jordan (BDG)

Craig C Lewis

Craig Lewis grew up in a transplanted Scottish family in southern England before setting off against all advice to seek light and wisdom in far-off places, rather than staying put and looking within. After repeated encounters with the Buddhadharma as a journalist in Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and across Asia, he eventually found refuge as senior editor at BDG, where he reports and writes on the diversity of contemporary manifestations of the Dharma. Craig is also a keen mountain trekker and photographer, finding particular inspiration in the peoples, cultures, and Buddhist expressions of the Himalaya. In his column for BDG, “Chasing Light,” Craig seeks to document encounters, experiences, and epiphanies resulting from his own tentative and faltering path toward liberation. Contact: [email protected]

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