Wedged between political upheavals and pandemic fallouts, Myanmar faces a near-collapse on all fronts in terms of public sanitation, health system and its overall economies. Ling Jiou Mountain (LJM) teamed up with the Community Partners Int’l (CPI) and the first donation of US$10K in September was appropriated for the procurement of oxygen cylinders at 40 units each for the 40Ls and 10Ls respectively. Further charity drive will hopefully raise sufficient funds for the construction of oxygen plants and the procurement of oxygen concentrators (aka medical ventilators) to assist Myanmar's remote areas where the lack of life-supporting emergency materials in general and PPEs for COVID-19 in particular is common.

LJM Founding Abbot, Dharma Master Hsin Tao, saw to it that the LJM Charity Foundation get launched in 1993 to carry out its multi-dimensional mission in caring for those in need throughout Samsara's life cycle. All his life and since early on, Dharma Master Hsin Tao has always been known for his dedication to community services by virtue of ‘Care, Love, & Compassion’, and together with Taiwan's fine professionals from different disciplines, LJM relief missions have been dispatched where emergency calls for them. In view of the severe magnitude of the pandemic in Myanmar, Dharma Master Hsin Tao even took a moment from his heavy duties at the signature annual JLM Water-Land Dharma Assembly for reflection and commented that follow-through actions of the LJM relief mission will include the donation of oxygen concentrators, oxygen cylinders, nutrition supplements to enhance immunity against COVID-19, PPEs ranging from facial masks and shields to protective gowns for frontline medical professionals, quick screening and PCRs, as well as TCM capsules for the pandemic. Everyone was also reminded to keep the masks on at all times for personal protection.

The political coup in February this year gave rise to lasting ripples of widespread unrest gravely worsened by a lingering COVID-19 and its devastating fallouts. Reliable statistics indicate that, since May, over 90% of hospitals and clinics have become at capacity in most of Myanmar and no longer admit new patients. Popular inoculation also got held up infinitely, leaving Myanmar particularly vulnerable to the seemingly unstoppable new strains of coronavirus variants.

Official statistics indicate that only 2.8% of the Burmese population have been inoculated with COVID-19 vaccinations. There is a severe lack of medical supplies throughout Myanmar, and the situation is dire where outburst of confirmed cases just began to surge. Widespread shortage of medical oxygen has given rise to price hikes, and with it, the mortality rate of COVID-19 victims, especially the poor. LJM's relief mission is indeed what counts in the 11th hour for those in need.

According to the LJM Charity Foundation, the CPI was founded in 1998 by American medical doctors and philanthropists with a focus on communities negatively impacted by disruptions, violence, and great losses of life and property. Such communities are usually in remote areas hard to access, thereby marginalized and rejected because of poverty. Together with 9 other social organizations, religious groups, healthcare insitutes for ethnic minorities, etc., CPI set out to cover basic requirements for health, humanity, and development for those in need. To date, the radius of its outreach program benefits some half-a-million people in Myanmar and Bangladash every year.

Presently, CPI is responding to the accute, pan-community, need for medical support for COVID-19 patients and the urgent, critical need of life-saving capacity to reach remote regions of Myanmar. There are plans to help build oxygen plants and secure procurement of oxygen concentrators, PPEs, and other medical supplies for such regions. Working in tandem with CPI, the LJM Charity Foundation supports the project of purchasing oxygen cylinders and facilitated the delivery of them to remote villages in Myanmar such as Kachin State, Kayin State, Southern Shan State, Mon State, Ayeyarwady Province and Delindayi Province, to benefit those poor and helpless victims of the pandemic - thereby expanding the charity map of LJM to glorify Taiwan's love for the world.

The above relief mission by LJM received donations by dental doctors such as Huang Chun-Feng of Taiwan's Oral Care Association (TOCA). The latter has been actively joining LJM in its relief missions for remote areas in Myanmar in recent years and has thus fostered a deep bonding with Burma. Most international services came to a halt due to COVID-19, LJM's cooperation with CPI in this context serves to illuminate that where there is a will, there is a way. LJM's dedication to helping those in need in Myanmar will not be compromised or deterred to stay its course.