![A volunteer dressed as the God of Prosperity shares festive blessings with care recipients at the event. [Photo by Joelene Lee]](/images/Articles/CS/2026/KL20260201_llf03_030.jpg "A volunteer dressed as the God of Prosperity shares festive blessings with care recipients at the event. [Photo by Joelene Lee]")
On 1 February 2026, more than 700 people gathered at the KL Tzu-Chi Jing Si Hall for a Lunar New Year distribution held for care recipients. Smiles and greetings filled the space, bringing warmth and a quiet sense of hope at the start of the year.
During the event, care recipients learned about disasters happening around the world and saw how Tzu Chi volunteers respond swiftly across borders to provide relief. Through real-life stories, they were encouraged to move from receiving support to giving love.
Two sharings were especially moving. One care recipient spoke of a change in mindset during hardship that led to volunteering. Another shared how ten years of steady companionship from volunteers helped a child continue her studies and eventually enter university. Their stories showed that with perseverance and a willingness to keep learning, life can still be full of hope.
The atmosphere then turned festive as a six-member live band from the Tzu Chi Continuing Education Centre performed a medley of familiar Chinese New Year songs. Applause and singing filled the hall, and during “Gong Xi Gong Xi”, everyone clapped along and exchanged blessings, lifting the celebration to its peak.
As the music faded, the hall returned to calm. With palms joined, everyone offered prayers and made wishes for the year ahead. Each care recipient also received a Red Envelope of Blessings and Wisdom printed with a Jing Si Aphorism – a New Year blessing and gentle reminder from Master Cheng Yen, planting a seed of kindness in the heart.
◎ Love in every dish
This year, the culinary team served a thoughtfully prepared reunion-style meal in round-table settings, so families could enjoy the taste of the season and the warmth of gathering together. Dishes included vegetarian shark’s fin soup, herbal lion’s mane mushrooms and braised tofu knots with mushrooms.
The team began work around 3 a.m. to prepare the large quantities needed. Yet in the kitchen, there were no complaints, only gentle reminders and mutual support. With joyful hearts, they turned demanding work into blessings, hoping not only to serve a hot meal, but also to create space for families to sit, chat, and feel remembered and accompanied.
◎ Patient companionship, lives transformed
As volunteers walk with care recipients through hardships, they come to understand that suffering takes many forms. Each care recipient faces different challenges, such as financial pressures, strained family relationships, or long-term physical and emotional exhaustion. When offering support, volunteers try to respond with empathy rather than judgment. Only by steadying their own minds and letting go of assumptions can they hold space for others. In this way, companionship becomes a quiet but steadfast strength, while volunteers also learn about humility and grow through giving.
Volunteer Chen Lai Ching recalled accompanying one care recipient who seemed emotionally volatile and strong-willed, but was in fact carrying years of inner deprivation and vulnerability. Unable to work and living in long-term isolation, he gradually turned to the internet and online shopping to fill an emotional void, and at one point lost restraint in how he used financial aid. The volunteers did not simply continue giving. Instead, they temporarily suspended assistance and guided him to cherish resources and adjust his behaviour. With steady companionship and timely reminders, the care recipient gradually became willing to listen, and his attitude softened. The experience affirmed for the volunteers that true care is neither indulgence nor confrontation, but upholding principles with understanding.
◎ Growing through adversity, a young man’s resolve
Volunteers’ long-term companionship has gradually brought hope to many care recipients.
Tan Chun Keat from Bagan Nakhoda Omar in northern Selangor, first encountered Tzu Chi at the age of ten. When his father developed diabetes, with blurred vision and weakened limbs, the family fell into hardship. Following a referral from his aunt, volunteers began regular visits. As his father’s condition worsened, Chun Keat and his sister, who is two years older, took on caregiving responsibilities, sharing household chores and helping their father clean wounds, bathe and change clothes. In 2025, both of his father’s legs were amputated due to bacterial infection, further increasing the siblings’ burden.
Yet, Chun Keat never saw caring for his father as a hardship. He understood that his father’s emotional ups and downs often came from pain and helplessness. Over seven years of monthly home visits and companionship from volunteers, he grew from an innocent child into a thoughtful teenager.
On his first visit to the KL Tzu-Chi Jing Si Hall for the distribution event, he explored the environmental exhibition and gained valuable insight into moderating desires and cherishing resources. Hearing about Tzu Chi’s humble beginnings from the collective saving of 50 cents daily, and stories of lives transformed, he felt encouraged. He is now determined to prepare wholeheartedly for this year’s SPM, believing that education can transform lives.
The reunion meal brought him a long-missed sense of family warmth, and he also made a vow to embrace a vegetarian diet. Before leaving, he said gratefully, “If not for Tzu Chi, I don’t know who I would be today.” He hopes to join Tzu Chi one day and reciprocate the kindness he has received.
◎ Gentle guidance, a cycle of goodness
Khern Wan Mong, a single father from Sekinchan, attended the event with his second son, Khern Kian Yu. Formerly a fisherman, Wan Mong has been unable to work steadily in recent years due to declining health and the need for long-term blood-thinning medication. With the family facing financial difficulty, Tzu Chi began long-term care following a relative’s referral.
Over the years, Tzu Chi has provided medication subsidies and monthly living support, while volunteers pay regular visits. Of his five children, only the youngest remains in school; the other four had to leave school early and take on odd jobs to support the family.
That day, Kian Yu pushed his father in a wheelchair. At the pre-loved item corner, he carefully selected clothing and daily supplies, consulting his father each time. He also chose a lovely dress for his niece. Being able to go out during the festive season and enjoy a vegetarian reunion meal filled Wan Mong’s face with joy.
During the programme, Kian Yu was deeply moved by earthquake relief footage from the “Tzu Chi 2025 Year in Review”. Seeing the suffering of survivors and the lives lost, he said, “Those places are too far away, and I don’t have the means to go and help. But if I had the ability, I would certainly go.” In the spirit of the Master’s teaching: “When others are hurt, we feel their pain; when others suffer, I share their sorrow,” a 23-year-old Kian Yu shared that although he earns a modest income, he would save whatever loose change he can after work each day to help those in need.
With years of patient guidance and companionship from volunteers, kindness has taken root in his heart. He has grown more determined to keep his feet on the ground, do his job well and keep giving, so he can build a more stable life for his family, step by step.
◎ Never complaining, never giving up
Among the crowd was also a story of a deep family bond. Soo Bee Kim spoke of her cousin Soo Beng Heng with tearful eyes. “I watched him grow up from a baby. We are 12 years apart, and we have always been close.” Now, seeing him reliant on a walking stick and struggling to speak clearly—no longer the robust man he once was—fills her with heartache and concern for what lies ahead.
In July 2025, an unexpected phone call disrupted her once peaceful life. Her cousin, long out of contact, had been seriously injured in an accident and urgently needed family care. “I was truly helpless back then,” she recalled. With his wife and children unwilling to step in, and his sister having her own family responsibilities, Bee Kim made up her mind: “I cannot abandon him.” Hospital discharge arrangements and nursing home fees quickly mounted. After repeated setbacks seeking help, she remembered someone mentioning Tzu Chi. Holding on to a sliver of hope, she reached out, and volunteers came promptly to offer support, bringing a turning point to their situation.
She spoke with emotion about her cousin’s past. Once a lion dance instructor, he later became a taxi driver, but due to disputes, he ended up working at construction sites and often went without regular meals. After the accident, the once agile man became someone who needed daily care. “Managing everything on my own has not been easy,” she admitted, yet she chose to persevere.
That day, Bee Kim accompanied him to the distribution at the Jing Si Hall. Entering the dignified venue for the first time, Beng Heng appeared especially happy. Accompanied by Bee Kim and volunteers, he toured the environmental exhibition and pre-loved item corner before watching the programme. He watched the “Tzu Chi 2025 Year in Review” attentively, and later said sincerely, “I am grateful to see so much here. Tzu Chi has helped so many people.” He shared his wish to join recycling initiatives if he regains the ability.
Through this bond of care, Bee Kim has also grown closer to Tzu Chi, transforming gratitude for the help received into the strength to give.
●
Though the event lasted only a few hours, it reflected years of genuine care and long-term companionship. With patience, volunteers step into the lives of care recipients, helping them feel understood and respected, and gradually rediscover the strength to stand again. Some are transformed through companionship; others regain faith in the future because someone was there to catch them. Each story is a seed of kindness, quietly sprouting over time.
Beyond putting supplies into hands, the distribution brought blessings into hearts, reminding every care recipient that they are not alone. When met with sincerity, life finds the courage to keep going. May the warmth flowing through the Jing Si Hall accompany every family through the year ahead, and may this cycle of kindness continue, gently and enduringly.
