BLIA South Island Spreading “Peace and auspiciousness” to Christchurch School through Free Distribution of Apples

As the pandemic continued its rampage in New Zealand, concerned about the health of the community, on 11 May 2022, 3 members of Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) South Island went to Christchurch Opawa Primary School to present 200 masks and 300 apples. On behalf of the school, Principal Sally Ormandy accepted the medical masks and apple fruit.

When the BLIA team arrived at the school, they were warmly received by the students and teachers, and the students also assisted in carrying the supplies. Principal Sally was very happy to see the BLIA team again. When she learned that Fo  Guang Shan (FGS) Christchurch especially purchased fresh apples from the farms in order to support the fruit farmers during this tough period of pandemic, Principal Sally was happy and touched. The BLIA team explained that apple in Chinese means peace and auspiciousness, and is hence a peaceful fruit; and giving apples to  people means sending peace and auspiciousness and good luck and happiness to them.

Afterwards, the visiting BLIA team presented to Principal Sally the “2022 BLIA New Zealand Activities Report”. Principal Sally was pleasantly surprised to discover that the content of the Report covers the incident of her personally going to FGS South Island Temple to collect the Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) kits. Before the BLIA team departed, the enthusiastic Principal offered to help forward the reports to other schools at the soon-to-be-held Inter-School Meeting.

During the severe pandemic time, by carrying out the free distribution of anti-pandemic materials and apples to schools in New Zealand, BLIA members managed to establish links with the students. Through these links, the seeds of goodness and beauty of Buddhism could be planted in the students’ hearts and will germinate, grow and flourish in the future!