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Medical Missions
Master Cheng Yen established the Tzu Chi Foundation’s Mission of Medicine by attending to the sick in Hualien, Taiwan and nearby by counties, where medical resources were scarce, and inadequate. Free clinics were conducted twice a week for 15 consecutive years, serving the indigents in Eastern Taiwan.
Since then, the Tzu Chi Foundation has evolved into an international medical mission. Tzu Chi operates six hospitals in Taiwan, manages the world’s fifth largest bone marrow banks, and administered the Tzu Chi International Medical Association (TIMA), with more than 8,600 doctors and health professionals, who provide free medical care to more than two million people worldwide.