Tonnes of trash and unauthorized housing along the banks of the river were the main causes of the flood. On March 24, approximately 200 foundation members, 300 Indonesian soldiers and 700 flood victims began to clean up the riverbanks. In 24 hours, they removed a total of 96 tonnes of trash.

Asked whether the foundation's members have experienced any religious bigotry in Indonesia, which is primarily Muslim, senior member Hung Chi-cheng said that there has been no problem when people express mutual respect for each other.

"We simply showed our love and concern for those in need of help. In addition, we never forced anybody to convert to Buddhism because our priority is to love people and show people how to love each other. That is the spirit," said Hung, who is also the president of Taichung's Tayu Security Co.

The "Perumahan Cinta Kasih"

The foundation began to build the "Perumahan Cinta Kasih" in Cengkareng Village, Jakarta.

Perumahan Cinta Kasih is actually a village composed of 55 five-story apartment buildings which can house 1,100 families made homeless by the flood. The construction of the village, an elementary school, a middle school and a medical center began on July 8 last year and was completed on July 5 this year.

The foundation said that it spent US$7.05 million in donations to build the apartment complex.

Most residents in the complex are illiterate. As a result, Tzu Chi members drew labeled the building with symbols of fruit so that the residents can identify the buildings.

The foundation charges the flood victims a nominal fee for electricity, water and gas. In addition, residents' children will be educated at Tzu Chi Elementary School and Tzu Chi Middle School.

"We only charge each household US$10 [per month] for electricity, water and gas," said Liu Su-mei, the executive-general of the foundation's Indonesia Branch, who has lived in Jakarta for 10 years.

Population control

Liu said that members of the foundation are also trying to educate Indonesian people how to use birth control.

"Having too many children is also a big problem," said Liu. "We have to let them know that quality is more important than quantity."

In the meantime, many Indonesian members of Tzu Chi, among whom are major local business leaders, are planning to establish new factories or companies to provide more job opportunities to local Indonesian residents who are skilled but jobless.

Endang Gofarudin, a 34-year-old resident at the Perumahan Cinta Kasih, said that he was thankful for the chance to move into his apartment from where they used to live along the Angke River.

With a pregnant wife and a son, Gofarudin makes a living by operating a mobile noodle stand. His seven-year-old son Endi is currently a student at the Tzu Chi Elementary School.

"With Tzu Chi's help, I now have everything to begin a new life and I am thankful for that," Gofarudin said. "I hope my son becomes a doctor in the future so that he can help people like us."

For health and teacher positions at the medical center and two schools inside the complex, Tzu Chi hired local Indonesian professionals, reiterating its "religion does not matter" hiring policy. A Christian middle school principal and a Catholic elementary school principal were among those hired.

Asked what brought them to Tzu Chi, middle school Principal Hudson Pardede said that he wanted to help more children and teach them values, such as the importance of environmental protection and humanitarianism.

"Most Indonesian people throw away garbage whenever and wherever they please. But this is also the main reason for the flood last year. We wanted to let the next generation know that we have to protect our natural resources and the environment and teach them to be thankful for what they have and for what they have been given," said Pardede.

Elementary school principal Thomas Tukijo, who is Catholic, said that he lives near the complex. He decided to devote himself to do something after he heard that Tzu Chi was planning to build the complex.

"When workers began to build the complex, I was quite curious about what it was for. When I realized, I decided to drop my resume off at the elementary school for the principal's position," said Tukijo.

Prior to joining Tzu Chi, Pardede was a middle school principal for seven years and Tukijo had been an elementary school teacher for six years.

According to them, the middle school has 94 students and the elementary school has 363 students. All of these students are Perumahan Cinta Kasih residents.

"We are planning to accept students from outside the shelter but we have not decided when to do so at this moment," said Pardede.

Pardede said that there are 15 teachers for the middle schools and 23 teachers for the elementary schools. All of whom are local staff.

Students do have to pay a nominal tuition fee. From first grade to third grade, the fee is US$1.2 a month; for the fourth grade to the sixth grade, it is US$2.4 a month; for all middle schools students, it is US$3.6 a month.

"We understand that all of our students came from poor families so we would like to help them as much as we can," said Tukijo.

The Senen station

In addition to helping those flood victims who used to live along the banks of the Angke River, Tzu Chi members also showed concern for the many other poor areas in the country.

Senen, another poor area in Jakarta, is populated with more than 2,400 people who live in illegal houses along the railroads. Most of these people make their living by picking up trash and selling useful items and recycleables from it.

"I was told that 1kg of empty plastic bottles would be worth US$0.10. This is actually a `business' here. As a result, it is very difficult for us to teach them how to protect the environment instead of polluting it by throwing garbage away at will," said Lu Lien-chu, a senior member who has been living in Jakarta for 12 years.

Local Indonesian people climb to the roof of a car to avoid paying for tickets when they ride a train -- a phenomenon also extant in India.

"They had to do this," said Lu. "They cannot afford the tickets but they have to travel anyway. So they have to sit on the roof of a train."

Lu said that there are people are killed by the train's high-voltage electric current or are rammed by a train every day.

Train station coffins

According to Muslim traditions, a body must be cremated within 24 hours. As a result, many coffins await victims between tracks for emergency use.

"Once somebody passes away, they put the body into the coffin immediately and ship it out for cremation," Lu said. "Nobody would care where this dead person came from. To them, it is just the end of another body. They are too poor to worry about the details."

According to Lu, the Indonesian government is also planning to relocate the residents along the railway in Senen. However, due to limited budgets and a lack of land, no concrete plans have been made.

The foundation received a donation of 50,000 tonnes of rice from Taiwan's Council of Agriculture in May this year, which Tzu Chi will distribute. According to the plan, Tangerang is one of the stops for the relief trucks carrying the rice.

In addition to Tangerang, Hong Tjhin, an Indonesian member of the foundation who organized the rice handouts, said that they are also planning to distribute the rice in Medan and Aceh.

With approximately 1,700 households, Tangerang Township in Banten District, about 100km west of Jakarta, is one of the poorest areas in West Java.

When Tzu Chi members and reporters arrive around 9am, residents have already lined up with coupons in their hands for the 40 tonnes of rice to be given away.

Among the residents, the 63-year-old Fan Yu-lin surprised Taiwanese reporters and came into the local media spotlight because he was originally from China, but he can not remember which province his ancestors came from and could not speak any Mandarin at all.

Fan said that he has been living in Tangerang since 1945 -- the same year as the KMT-led evacuation from China -- and never left the town. There are seven people in his family and all his children were married. However, he decided to live alone in Tangerang because all his friends were waiting for him there. He quickly became accustomed to the environment.

Asked how he made his living, surprisingly, Fan said that he is a Chinese medical doctor, but that he has never gone to school.

"I love helping people. My skills to cure people are based on countless experiments that I have done. People trust me and I feel great to see my patients recover," he said.

According to Liu, the Tzu Chi's Indonesia Branch began to provide assistance in 1995, and that Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri said during the grand opening of the Perumahan Cinta Kasih's medical center on Aug. 25 that the flood last year elevated the cooperation between the two regions.

"I hope that Tzu Chi's actions inspire more government officials and Indonesian people to work hand-in-hand to make Jakarta a better place," she said.