I've always wanted to be a volunteer but I do not know how and didn't how to reach to some organization.
But alhamdulillah I had the opportunity to execute what I have been thinking of doing for a long time. I joined a group of youth who has the passion in helping the less fortunate.
I first bumped into this group when a friend of mine posted a photo of one of their activity. Distributing food for the homeless. I asked 2 of my colleagues if they were interested in joining me and they did and the rest was history
Infiniti Youth Organization was recently registered under the Menteri Belia dan Sukan. This committee comprises a group of youth under 35 years old, started this group among themselves soon realize that it would be a good thing to expand their wings. More people means more help can be channel to these unfortunates'.
Their financial pool first came from their own pockets which I think a noble thing to do. You see, the modern youth that we have nowadays are competitive. Competitive in the sense of who has bigger and nice car, who owns a house, who's using the latest LV handbag. But these group of youth, rather than spending their weekends watching movies, they spend their weekend helping the homeless by providing them food.
As the number of volunteers increased, they had financial help coming in as well as sponsors.
So......It was raining last Saturday but that didn't stop us from continuing what we had initially planned. I hanged a few goodies bag on my shoulder finding for homeless people at the bus stations with the team, by the side walk, beside mosques. Because it was raining, these homeless will normally seek shelters and they don't stay long at the same spot. It could be hard to locate them at times.
I thought 'Man, this is a real deal' and I even reminded myself 'Yong, don't break, don't break down, don't break down'. Hey, I had to control my macho too, you know.
The first homeless person we bumped shook my emotional state. I told myself that 'For God sake, I complained so much about everything yet these people are living happily even without home'. I used to pass by these people thinking, what on earth are they doing here. Now I understand that no one wants to end up living like this, but circumstances gave them no choice.
The one thing I learnt from these homeless is that, they care for each other no matter what background they come from. The live close to each other and they even share their food. Something that we, modern society lack of. While the children make use of the things they have, the children that we know in this modern days would cry for not buying them an iPad. Things have totally change and I'm starting to think whether all this issue that we're facing, was it coming from what we have learnt from home or behavior that we picked up through our circle of society?
After seeing what I saw last weekend, I started to appreciate what I have. I told myself that I will count my blessings even though I'm having a bad day or perhaps things did not turn out how it supposed to.
I've made a different to these people and I feel so grateful to be given the chance to see how living by the street really like. Not knowing when is your next meal or whether you get to live the next day to see the sunrise. Seeing their happy faces when they us with bag of food, just priceless. An experience I will not forget and certainly will participate in a long run.
If you would like to join us in reaching out to the less fortunate, you can contact:
Shahzieda at 017-579 4225
or
visit their Facebook page here. They also have Instagram group that you can follow here. Live update are normally being uploaded on their Instag,
