Love, light and life: Another year of touching lives and giving hope from Tzu Chi foundation
‘Eighteen years since the Tzu Chi Eye Center was established, its commitment to serve with love and heal with kindness remains steadfast.
A RESIDENT of Haven for the Elderly reads an eye chart.
Photograph Courtesy of TCMFP
Every year, the Tzu Chi Medical Foundation Philippines serve tens of thousands of visually impaired patients at its eye hospital in Sta. Mesa, Manila and medical missions in the provinces and abroad. Its volunteer doctors and healthcare staff, some from abroad, do the service for free in line with the humanitarian cause of Tzu Chi founder, Dharma Master Cheng Yen of Taiwan. Giving cash and kind support to the cause are various donors, including companies, other foundations and Tzu Chi chapters in other countries.
“Master Cheng Yen put into action the main teachings of the Buddha: kindness, compassion, joy and giving. The best example of this is our Buddhist Tzu Chi Eye Center,” according to Tzu Chi Medical Foundation Philippines CEO and volunteer Alfredo Li.
“Master Cheng Yen and I provided the best facilities, the best equipment, the best doctors, and the best medicine for our less privileged brothers and sisters in the Philippines, regardless of religion. Eighteen years since the Tzu Chi Eye Center was established, its commitment to serve with love and heal with kindness remains steadfast,” Li said.
THOUSANDS were treated by Tzu Chi Eye Center volunteer doctors in 2025. (From left) At the Zambales medical mission; a senior’s glaucoma is examined; patients in Cambodia; and beneficiaries at their house renovated by TCEC volunteers.
Photograph Courtesy of TCMFP
Medical missions
Among the highlight activities of the foundation in 2025 are the medical missions for residents of Dagupan City in Pangasinan, for firefighters and traffic enforcers in Metro Manila, and for employees of private companies in Navota City, Quezon City, and Batangas and Zambales provinces.
In May, TCEC volunteers also conducted a medical mission in Takeo Province, Cambodia. Assisting them were medical teams from Tzu Chi, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and Cambodia. The Filipino volunteers conducted 108 operations for cataract pterygium from 31 May to 1 June. Another 107 patients benefited from free eye consultations.
In April, the Department of Social Welfare and Development recognized the TCEC’s contribution in safeguarding the health of residents and personnel of the Haven for the Elderly in Tanay, Rizal. Its senior residents were the beneficiary of TCEC’s surgical outreach program.
