Taiwan members donate baby blankets to hospital
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HUALIEN, TAIWAN
Mothers of newborns in Hualien, Taiwan, now have blankets for their babies, thanks to a donation by members of the Hualien Taiwan District.
Officials of the Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation's hospital in Hualien accepted 300 blankets for newborn babies at a recent presentation ceremony. The blankets were purchased by members of the four branches in the small district located along the isolated scenic east coast of the island.
Lu Hsien-heng, president of the Hualien Branch, said that the blankets are meant to be "passed along" to others once the babies outgrow them. As the blankets are passed along, they will ultimately benefit many times the 300 families who first receive them.
The Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, like the Church, is well known worldwide for its humanitarian assistance work. Cooperation between the two organizations is growing, said Elder Dennis Sparrow and Sister Mary Sparrow, Taiwan-based Welfare Services missionaries.
Last fall, a group of Tzu Chi Technology University students and their teachers visited Brigham Young University on a student exchange program. While in Utah, the Tzu Chi group was given a tour of Church world headquarters sites in Salt Lake City by Brother Keith Longson and Sister Irene Longson, assistant directors of Church Hosting. "The Tzu Chi Buddhist University faculty and students were wonderful. They had a very special spirit about them," said the Longsons.
Elder and Sister Sparrow report that missionaries from the Taiwan Taipei Mission are now scheduled to provide service at a Tzu Chi-operated recycling center in Taiwan's capital city, Taipei. "We would hope that these cooperative efforts between the Church and Tzu Chi Buddhist Foundation are the beginnings of building bridges of understanding and respect," said Sister Sparrow.
