 Lotus
students, host families and Beijing staff take part in a rice cake charity sale
on Jan 5 th, which is organized by Tzu Chi foundation. The entire fund
rising is to help the Tzu Chi water cellars project in GanSu province, west China.
In GanSu rainfall is less than 200 millimeters a year. Villagers have to walk 3
hours every day to get the water back. This small pond is the only water resource
for hundreds of home.
Villagers can barely get by using storage pits to collect rainwater.
To provide clean drinking water for people living in GanSu, the Tzu Chi Foundation
has built over 10,000 water cellars since 1997. This December, Tzu Chi volunteers
gathered in Jingyuan County of GanSu to celebrate the official opening of 2,890
water cellars. With the completion of the second phase, the third phase has been
contracted to begin next spring in Jingyuan County.
 Rice cake-Nian Gao (年糕)is a popular
desert eaten during Chinese New Years. One of the reasons it's eaten during this
time is because the words "nian gao (年糕)", meaning "sticky cake," sounds just like
the words 年高, which means something along the lines of "growing taller every year.”
this is used to wish the person good health and good fortune in the New Year. All
the rice cake on sale are hand made by volunteers.
To make rice cake requires many works: checking rice, preparing bamboo vessel, grinding
rice, smashing sugar, mixing rice slurry, steaming,packing ect. The first step is
to check the rice, which means pick out the bad rice.
Students of Lotus checking the rice to ensure the good quality of
rice cake.
Natalia from Columbia preparing the bamboo vessel on which the rice cake will be held.
 Guy from
Cambridge University checking the rice with his host father.
 Local
volunteers smashing the brown sugar to enable it can mix with the rice slurry very
well.
Volunteers
putting the rice slurry into the bamboo vessel.
A volunteer looking at the post of water cellar project in Gansu Province.
Rice cakes are done! Volunteers preparing the packing.
I have been really impressed with the Tzu Chi organization. Before attending the
event, I checked out the website, which was very informative.
The event itself was a real success. Most of the foreign students and I helped to
check that the rice was of high quality so that the cakes were also. All of the
helpers were really kind and the organizers were very informative about the water
cellar cause. I think it is a terrible plight of the people who have to travel so
far just to get a basic necessity such as water. The work the foundation are doing
in there are really inspiring and I hope they raise lots of money in the future.
Alex Topsfield
This volunteer activity was amazing…is the first time that I join
an event like
this and without any doubt I will still join it if I have the opportunity. There
is so much to do and a lot of people to help out that just attending to this volunteer
event can make the difference, I know it’s not much but I will try to volunteer
as much as I can, it’s a great life experience.
Natalia
I volunteer quite a bit back in America and this was a great experience. I think
that what Tzu Chi volunteers do is great. To help so many disadvantaged people is
a great thing to do. I hope to help out more while I am here and when I return to
America. Changing the world happens one person at a time.
Angel piper
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