Masters of the Ling Jiou Mountain Buddhist Society (LJM) recently tidied up a quantity of second-hand winter quilts for donations to schools of bhikkhunis in remote areas of Myanmar, prompting the LJM Charity Foundation to launch an expanded drive that collected over a thousand new winter quilts to help refugees in war-torn northern regions of Myanmar. A kind notion of compassion triggered a chain reaction of good to connect the dots between Taiwan and Myanmar to help many people navigate this year’s severe winter.

The LJM Charity Foundation revealed that residential masters of the monastery made clean some 187 second-hand quilts and thick wool blankets that could pass for brand new thanks to the meticulous cleaning they had been treated with. The Foundation first double-checked to see there’s no domestic demand for the use of them before contacting the Myanmar Liver Foundation for donation to monasteries in need.

The donated quilts reached two schools of bhikkhunis— Shwe Yadanar Philanthropic School and Shwe Sandar Thara Nun’s School— in remote regions away from Yangon in mid-February. Senior members and young bhikkhunis went online to express their gratitude and said that the quilts were a timely gift to keep warm in Myanmar’s harsh winter this year. They appreciate the fine quality of the quilts and consider them a much appreciated New Year’s present. They took to video messaging to say a sincere thank-you to the LJM Buddhist Society.

Doing good is like throwing a pebble stone into water that creates a rippling effect with the concentric circles getting bigger and bigger. The donation of quilts to Myanmar was a case in point and the Foundation’s long-time partner, voluntary medics from the Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital, pitched in with cash to purchase 1,340 new quilts for dispatching to refugees scattered across regions like the Shan State in northern Myanmar, for them to enjoy the warmth from Taiwan with love.