Ling Jiou Mountain dispatches Relief Fund, Rescue Materials to Bago in Myanmar

Ling Jiou Mountain Buddhist Society (LJM) made a donation of a COVID-19 relief fund at MMK$8.3Mn plus rescue materials like foodstuff in value of MMK$16.7Mn to people of Bago, where the future LJM University for Life & Peace will be situated in Myanmar. The donation ceremony on May 21 proceeded with LJM Patron Representative TIN San Myint and the future University's Liaison Office Representative Nyi Nyi Zin on behalf of LJM. Bago Region Chief Minister U Win Thein, was there to receive the donation. The distribution of the rescue materials was activated right away following the ceremony.

Governor U Win Thein made specific mention of support for the future LJM University for Life & Peace for its potentials of generating momentum for development in Bago and Myanmar. Education is an enterprise for centuries to come and it requires much time for detailed planning. The Governor was grateful to the LJM Founding Abbot, Dharma Master Hsin Tao, for his foresight and vision, as well as the readiness to inject time and resources to create prosperity for the region.

With 10 village-counties under its jurisdiction, Bago is in the vicinity of Yangon (Rangoon). It is also the designated location where the future LJM University for Life & Peace will be built and created. Dharma Master Hsin Tao has been concerned about Buddhist disciples and followers navigating COVID-19 in Myanmar and hopes that the Fourfold Assembly will help one another in mitigating the adversities. The LJM Charity Foundation has, therefore, started a donation drive in the area reserved for the future University to help those of Bago in need.

Master Xian Yue, LJM Religious Affairs Commission Executive, pointed out that the University for Life & Peace as Dharma Master Hsin Tao's vehicles for the "Loving the Earth / Loving Peace" mission and vow and as an extension of the ideal of the Museum of World Religions (MWR) will materialize education of ecology for all-loving altruism. There will be three parks on the future campus of the University for Life & Peace for respectively Higher Education, Ecology, and Spirituality. Together, the campus will function as an international platform for ecological conservation for Planet Earth and as such it will be a key bastion for the promotion of Buddha's teachings in Myanmar.

Master Heng Ming, LJM Executive of the Maha Kusala Yama Monastery Sramanera School at Naung Mon, has been overseeing the operations of the donation, assisted in logistics by Master Bao Shan of the LJM Meditation Center in Yangon. Master Heng Ming expressed that the Bago authorities are friendly co-operators for LJM and have been extending great support to the latter's Sanghadana campaign for myriad sanghas over the past two years. The Bago government authorities are both grateful for LJM's initiative in offering support for the region's fight against the pandemic as well as for the lasting impression of Dharma Master Hsin Tao's great compassion.

Statistics from the Bago government authorities point to the need for help for a total of 1,200 households in its jurisdiction. Within days the LJM campaign was able to procure, package, and distribute bags of foodstuff containing rice, cooking oil, salt, onions, potatoes, instant noodles, oatmeals, etc. Local residents volunteered to help manage the project with manpower supply, as the preparations were impacted by a typhoon two days prior to the announced on-site distribution. The weather turned out just fine on D-Day and the campaign ran smoothly. As if the Guardian Divines were really observing the humanitarian action, the rainfall resumed upon the completion of the task, and the ending was almost like a purification ritual.

LJM University for Life & Peace Liaison Office Representative Nyi Nyi Zin said that the Myanmar government has been bearing the brunt of the cost for COVID-19 screening with no expenses charged to the public. It is nonetheless a tall call on the government of Myanmar. The LJM donation, therefore, also includes funding support of MMK$8.3Mn to help subsidize screening. The timely support was reported on by local media such as the leading network MRTV, the official Bago government webpage, and numerous Internet news outlets.

LJM Charity Foundation Deputy CEO CHEN Shih-Ren pointed out that lockdowns have been practiced by many countries in the region. The Foundation, however, has been going into both Nepal and Myanmar when natural disasters strike and has built up reliable networks for co-operation. As charity knows no country borderlines, LJM again is fulfilling its mission of compassion by helping the locals in dire need triggered by the pandemic.