Taiwan's Buddhist Compassionate Relief Tzu Chi Foundation (
With approximately 1,700 households, Tangerang Township in Banten District, about 100km west of Jakarta, is one of the poorest areas in West Java.
After a short Muslim prayer for goodwill, residents lined up in front of the township office, which has become the foundation's temporary operation headquarters, and presented their coupons to members of the foundation.
"Last month, we visited every single household in this area and evaluated the residents to decide how many packages they can have today," said the foundation's Global Volunteer chief supervisor Huang Su-hsien (
"We want to help these poor people but we do not want to turn them into lazy people. As a result, we have certain policies in giving away supplies," Huang said.
According to Huang, in addition to evaluating the recipients, the foundation made sure donations of food or supplies were delivered directly to them.
The foundation also tried to assess what else the recipients might need and, despite being a Buddhist organization, always respected local traditions and religions in the predominantly Muslim country, Huang said.
According to Hong Tjhin, an Indonesian member of the foundation who organized the rice handouts, Taiwan's Council of Agriculture donated 50,000 tonnes of rice to the foundation in May.
"We plan to distribute this rice to poor residents in Jakarta, Tangerang, Medan and Aceh," Tjhin said. "Currently, 12,000 of the 50,000 tonnes of rice have been distributed. Today's 40-tonne handout was shipped here last week and was guarded by the police to stop it being stolen by hungry and desperate residents."
According to Tjhin's plan, each household with fewer than three people will receive one 20kg package of rice. A household with more than three people will receive two packages.
Tjhin said that the plan to distribute the 50,000 tonnes donated by the Council of Agriculture was based on a similar donation in 1998 and 1999 of 100,000 packages of rice.
"We carried out our first free giveaway of rice after the riots in 1998. It was very dangerous for us to do so but it was quite an experience for us as well," Tjhin said.
He said another 7,500 tonnes of rice will be distributed in Medan and Aceh on Sept. 20.
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