Taiwanese Buddhist group sends relief to Afghans

Taiwan's Buddhist Compassionate Relief Tzu Chi Foundation (慈濟功德會) is sending relief aid to Afghan refugees via the assistance provided by a US Christian charitable organization, a spokesman for Tzu Chi's eastern US operations headquarters said on Sunday.

Four members of the Los Angeles-based Knightsbridge International were scheduled to depart from New York on Sunday night for Tajikistan. They will then proceed to an area in northern Afghanistan where the Taliban militia-defying Northern Alliance is based, said Huang Si-hsien (黃思賢), director of Tzu Chi's Overseas Supervision and Religious Affairs Department.

Huang said at a news conference marking the Knightsbridge International operation that a 12m container containing relief goods and medicine provided by Tzu Chi, which is already on its way to Tajikistan, is expected to arrive in the central Asian country's Dushanbe City before Sunday.

The Knightsbridge International group, led by the organization's chairman, Ed Artis, is charged with ensuring that the relief goods-filled container clears Tajikistan border customs smoothly. This will ensure that it can be delivered into the hands of the Afghan refugees, Huang added.

Artis, who was also present at the news conference, said that his team will purchase additional supplies -- including food, clothes and blankets -- once they are in Tajikistan to beef up the relief delivery.

According to Artis, the Knights-bridge members will purchase a large number of blankets at the price of US$3 to US$5 apiece locally and then arrange for individual blanket packages -- with foods, rice and edible oil wrapped inside -- to be airlifted to the Afghan refugees.

It is hoped that each refugee household in northern Afghanistan will receive one of the foundation's relief packages, which will also contain local currency equivalent to US$5. Each recipient household will be asked to sign for the package to make sure that the relief aid is indeed handed to the people who need it, Artis said.

Expressing his appreciation to Knightsbridge International's efforts, Huang stressed that religion is borderless and compassionate help should not be selective.

The vast majority of Afghans are not terrorists and only with love can the wounds of war be healed, Huang said.

Artis said this is the second time that Tzu Chi has cooperated with Knightsbridge International in relief efforts for Afghan refugees since 1998, when the two groups managed to send huge amounts of antibiotics, other medicines and medical equipment to Afghanistan's Bamian Province between February and May of that year. The relief was required at that time because of suffering brought about by the war against Russia in which the country was battered by invading troops.

Artis said his group will return to New York on Nov. 4 after completing the mission. He said he would like to take time to travel to Hualien to pay his respects to Tzu Chi Founder Master Cheng Yen (証嚴法師) for the foundation's efforts to help people in need around the world.