Yayasan Suria JB (YSJB) – Getting high on doing good!
Yes, this sounds “a bit funny” to many people not familiar with volunteerism but it is true that this ‘high’ is really high, the happiness, the joy, the ecstacy.
This ‘high’ experienced is better than taking drugs like ganja (cannabis), ecstasy (MDMA) or Ice (Syabu, Crystal or methamphetamine). So if you see a volunteer like me on the “high”, running around serving our clients (the Poor & Needy), don’t say “he is on the gear” (a term used by the real drug addict to describe someone high on drugs).
I have experience walking the streets, involved with the Needle and Syringe HIV/AIDS (Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome)/Methadone program and dealing with drug addicts/prostitutes.
A needle and syringe programme (NSP), also known as needle exchange program (NEP), is a social service that allows injecting drug users (IDUs) to obtain clean and unused hypodermic needles and associated paraphernalia at little or no cost.
A typical day will be like arranging 100 packets of cooked food from a donor to be distributed to clients. The donor cooks the food with Lve, volunteers call, say 7 families and a Home, to say we are bringing the food at a certain time.
Fresh and hot food on the way and the smiling and eager recipients waiting for the arrival. Their hungriness and gratefulness showed it all.
It’s just impossible to describe the scenario when their faces glow, eagerly waiting to receive the cooked food and so grateful and thankful for just these simple foods which meant so much to them. They don’t complain, they are eternally grateful for whatever is given to them, so contented.
“I cried because I had no shoes then I met a man who has no feet!
As we go from family to family, our happiness grows, seeing their happiness and when we finished doing this so-called “simple job”, which we take so much pride in doing, serving our clients with Lve, humility and respect, we get so high like we are “on the gear!”
Similarly, with food banks which we delivered from house to house monthly, feeding so many hungry stomachs. They have nothing and the little we give them means the world to them!
We too collect preloved items and give them away to our clients, the Poor & Needy and flood victims who are left with nothing at all. Any preloved items given to them will be like ‘gold’ to them and we ensure that whatever we give away is in good condition – sometimes we do send the items received (like fridge, washing machine, oven, TV, etc), to shops for repairs/check ups before passing to our clients.
To be a volunteer, one must take away all pride in oneself to be able to serve – serving others is not easy, especially when they are not someone higher up – people in the lower rung of society.
Never look down upon anyone and be so proud that you alone own the whole world like in this story:
Serving others is like giving away your possessions – you must start small, bit by bit and then grow it slowly over the years. It is not easy to do for you must be selfless!
But once you are used to serving others and can just let go of yourself, it’s happiness, it is freedom! And when you are happy, you get the energy, the “high” (like on drugs as mentioned above), you never feel tired and you can go on happily and willingly serving even as volunteers are not being paid.
“I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow-creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”