In Chinese, “tzu” means compassion and “chi” means relief—the very things that Dharma Master Cheng Yen sought to offer the impoverished in her native Taiwan. She founded Tzu Chi in 1966 along with five disciples, and after spending six years among the Taiwan’s poor, the young Master saw how prevalently illness caused a family’s fall into poverty. Determined to relieve their suffering, Tzu Chi began providing medical care to the poor. Since then, the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation has evolved its care into an international medical mission. We operate six hospitals in Taiwan, manage the world’s fifth largest bone marrow bank, and administer the Tzu Chi International Medical Association (TIMA) with more than 8,600 physicians and health professionals who provide free medical services to more than 2 million people around the world. In 1993, we established the Tzu Chi Medical Foundation in the United States with our first free clinic in California, dedicated to providing patient-centered, high-quality community health services to low-income individuals. We now run three community clinics in Alhambra, South El Monte and Wilmington, California, that provide care at minimal or no cost. We also host an array of free, large-scale medical outreaches across the country, along with mobile dental and vision programs, support groups and preventive health education.