Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association relief news update from Indonesia.
On September 2, in the middle of the holy Islamic Ramadan month, West Java island was struck by a powerful 7.3-magnitude temblor. Besides disrupting the Indonesian Muslims’ religious traditions, the quake took the lives of at least 80 people and injured scores of others, with 200,000 displaced from the resulting mudslides and collapsed homes.

Just one week later, Sulawesi island was struck by a 6.0-magnitude quake, damaging an additional hundreds of homes and offices. Immediately upon knowing of the disasters, Supreme Master Ching Hai donated a total of US$25,000 for our native Association members to help those most in need.

While conveying her tears of sorrow and much, much love, she also asked them to try to comfort people in their time of trauma and suffering. This amount could purchase US$304,000 in urgent supplies if purchased in the United States, based on Indonesia’s cost of living. Our Association’s Jakarta relief team initially went to 5 districts, covering their own expenses of US$1,000.

The night after the earthquake, the first team brought a mobile kitchen set to the disaster site and prepared food for the victims at Cianjur district. The next day, they filled four medium trucks with relief packages, each to go to a different location.

With help from the local Red Cross, the relief team distributed the food packages, as well as blankets, other daily necessities packages, and baby kits. Many remote areas had not received relief due to inadequate road access. Fortunately, our relief team was able to reach the locations. The victims were touched and happy to receive Master’s generous contribution, asking for her photo so they could always remember her loving kindness. Our appreciation goes to the Indonesian Red Cross personnel for their help.

We are grateful to Supreme Master Ching Hai for her care of the Indonesian people, and we thank our Association members for their sincere endeavors.  Our prayers for the quake victims’ fast return to productive daily life and that such disaster situations subside as humanity adopts kinder, eco-stabilizing ways.
Please tune in to Supreme Master Television for the second part of this relief report on Noteworthy News.