GREAT LOVE

Great Love 23 Tzu Chi International Medical Association (TIMA) In 1996, Tzu Chi set up TIMA, a medical support organization which aims at establishing an organized and systematic worldwide medical service network. TIMA members provide professional medical services to meet the demands from different areas and backup to every corner where medical resources is lacking. Today, there are TIMA members in 13 countries worldwide. With contributions from over 14,600 medical professionals and volunteers, over 3.08 million free treatments have been given to people in 50 countries. Since 2001, TIMA Malaysia was successively established in Melaka, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching and Muar, advocating the philosophy of people-oriented services and the medical humanistic culture of “curing people, treating illnesses and healing minds”. On August 31, 2015, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Transnational Medical Services was signed between Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital and Tzu Chi KL & Selangor. The scope of the collaboration covers medical training and referrals. Among the four sufferings in life, illness is the most bitter of them all. Master Cheng Yen thus vowed to build hospitals in rural areas where medical facilities were then relatively lacking. Going through thick and thin over the years, the Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital was eventually operational on August 17, 1986, advocating the tenet of “respecting lives” and implementing “patient-oriented” medical services. Now, the Tzu Chi medical network has stretched out from Hualien to Dalin, Yuli, Guanshan, Xindian (Taipei) and Tanzi (Taichung). These six Tzu Chi Hospitals, equipped with more than 4,000 sickbeds, have saved countless lives.