Buddhist spiritual and educational foundation Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM) has announced the winners of the fifth Caring for Life Awards. The Caring for Life Awards were established by DDM’s founder, Master Sheng Yen, in 2007, and are given in recognition of the struggle against disease and disability. The ceremony was held on 14 September in Taipei, Taiwan, which is also the birthplace of DDM.
Dharma Drum Mountain logo combining three mountain peaks and meditating monk into image of a hand. From upload.wikimedia.org
Hsiao Chien-hua suffers from chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP), a disorder which affects the peripheral nervous system, leading to gradual numbing and weakness in the limbs. According to a report on Focus Taiwan, Hsiao, who received the Individual Wisdom Award, is “grateful” for the health that remains to him, and suggests healthy people overcome their disappointments and “seek more surprises in their lives.”
The other Individual Wisdom awardee is dancer Liao Zhi, who lost her baby daughter and both legs from the knee down in the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that hit Sichuan, China, in 2008. Leaving the physical and mental trauma behind, Liao, who is now in her late 20s, began dancing again with the help of prosthetic legs. She has volunteered in other earthquake zones in China, and shares her experience as a survivor to motivate others. “It is joy, not suffering, that that allows people to go on,” Liao told mainland China site Gospel Times (translated in blog chinesechurchvoices.com).
Dancer Liao Zhi undeterred by her loss. From CNTV-English
DDM gave the Taiwan Foundation for Rare Disorders (TFRD) the Group Award for its efforts to ensure rare-disease patients have access to medical care, education, and employment. Established in 1999, the TFRD was initiated when the parents of children afflicted with a rare disease—Serena Wu and Min-Chieh Tseng—decided to tackle the issue of improving the lives of people with rare diseases. The TFRD is also involved in research, and has promoted the Rare Disease Control and Orphan Drug Act, as well as lobbying for a fund worth NT$2.2 billion (approximately US$66.3 million) to protect the rights of rare-disease patients, beginning in 2005. The fund has been raised annually ever since. Read more about the foundation here.
Priest Chen Kung-liang received the Individual Compassion Award. Over the past decade, Chen’s Hebron Humanitarian Society association has helped over 2,000 people in need, including orphans, mental health patients, and former inmates.
The fourth Caring for Life Awards ceremony was held in Taipei in July 2012. Awardees included His Eminence Cardinal Paul Kuo-hsi Shan (1923–2012) (Special Achievement Award) and Sherry Y. Chen (Individual Wisdom Award). The Vatican news network, News.VA, writes that the cardinal “knew how to respond to the great social changes of Taiwan with pastoral care attentive to the needs of the person. He worked in this perspective so that the Catholic laity assumed a role ever more conscious and effective.” Individual Wisdom Award winner Dr. Sherry Y. Chen is a chair professor in the Graduate Institute of Network Learning Technology, at National Central University (Taiwan). Read about the previous ceremony on the DDM news site.
Venerable Master Sheng Yen (1930–2009) founded Dharma Drum Mountain in 1989 with the simple thought: “The Dharma is so good, yet so few people know about it and so many people misunderstand it.” DDM has its roots in Chinese Buddhism, and aims to promote Buddhist education and “extend loving care to all.” Ordained under Master Shen Yen, the current abbot president is Venerable Guo Dong.