Compassion Bridges

Dear Donors: I would like to thank and compliment you extraordinary people. How many people in this world build bridges? Not many. You are rare and special people, who donated money for building bridges far from modern cities, for poor children to cross safely daily. You have given to parents who have children crossing single bamboo bridges daily to go to school, for many years, many of whom have died. You have provided a relief of fear for those parents. And, you have given a better life and a better education to those children.

Every time I’m for World Peace Foundation has built a bridge, it was always for a good reason. For example, one of the most recent was in the Thanh Hoa Village at Giong Rieng County.

Here is the story of how that bridge came about. A sad accident happened, on a rainy day of monsoon season in 2006. A 27 year-old farmer woman had to walk her 5 year-old son to cross a singe-pole bridge to go to his school on the other side of the river. The bridge was wet and slippery due to rain, and the river was high and strong. The right foot of the mother accidentally got stuck into her hem of her right pantsleg, she fell and pulled her son with her into the river, during the downpour, the mother, tried to save her boy, and then both drowned. The people from that area called us for help to rebuild the bridge. We responded and borrowed money to build the bridge immediately. Meanwhile, we sent out a letter requesting your support and donations, during construction.
You sent in the donations and the bridge was completed and inaugurated by the members of the Foundation. This is unusual, because we did not inaugurate many bridges that the Foundation funded to build during the bad floods of Hue and Dong Thap. This was the first bridge the Foundation inaugurated, even though there were two other consecutive bridges also built it the same county in 2006. The Compassion Bridge 3 was built year 2007 at Thanh Hoa, Giong Rieng, KG to enable 730 students crossing back and forth and as much as over 300 local farmers and teachers crossing daily. We also requested the prayers performed by local Buddhist monks for the peace and safety for everyone as well as peace for the mother and son who drowned.

I believe, if we trust each other and join our love and compassion to serve and build happiness for humanitarian causes, we possibly can build happiness for whoever suffers. May I dedicate this good cause to all donors and to all living beings, to have a safe and happy journey wherever they may go.

[nggallery id=3]

Thich Nu Hanh Tri, Founder.

P.O. Box 2188Fremont, CA 94536