The Pain of War

Half a year after the medicine distribution program began, Islamic militants attacked government troops, bringing greater destruction and uncertainty to Zamboanga.

At this time, Yang's home was not far from the battlefield. On the night of November 26, the skies rang out with the sound of continu­ous gunfire. At 3 a.m. the next day, Yang received a call, asking, "What are we going to do now? People living in the battle zone were evacuated at midnight. Are we going to be able to help them out?"

As the military confrontations persisted, Yang kept receiving calls for help. All the shops were closed, so no one could buy any food or daily necessities. Even government social workers came to ask Tzu Chi for help. Yang vividly recalls the desperate sound of a child wailing on the telephone.

The original team of thirteen members went to work immediately. They contacted Tzu Chi members who owned grocery stores in order to purchase noodles and food from them. Yang's father even provided eggs from his own farm, and Yang's mother was so exhausted after cook­ing so many eggs for the victims that she was unable to lift her arms.

The thirteen volunteers in their small, unar-mored cars had to venture out across the battle zone in order to distribute food and drink to a total of 4,500 refugees crammed within four dif­ferent shelters.
The first thing that had occurred to the vol­unteers was to organize the immediate prepa­ration of food and transport so as to keep inno­cent people from starving. They were not aware how incredibly dangerous it would be to transport food in a war zone, which at that time was crowded with soldiers, police, and tanks. The gunshots that they heard created a terrifying atmosphere.

In addition to refugees from these confronta­tions, volunteers also distributed food to troops, policemen, and Islamic activists. Some people
asked Yang, "Why did you help the activists?" Yang replied, "Because of the hatred they liad in their hearts. We had to help them acti­vate their love."
Afterwards, although the volunteers were frightened when they watched footage of the fighting on the TV news, they still had no regrets. "Thinking of those starving refugees," says Yang, "We just wanted to be there to help them. The ceaseless courage and inner strength just kept pouring out. It was quite unbeliev­able, in hindsight, when we realized what we had done."