Hi everyone,
Are there any of you out there
who are doing voluntary efforts to help those in need? Or is there any of you
that is reading this article interested to do so?
I am looking forward to
gathering more friends and volunteers who have the heart and time to contribute
towards betterment - the life of another being, not necessarily humans.
I know that many of us have trouble finding the time and money to contribute to such efforts. I was
there previously, thinking about when can I actually help someone if I can't
even sometimes help myself to find the time and save money. However, every time I
see the news about underprivileged people, seeing the stray animals near my
house, down the streets, and watching homeless people try to get shelter and
food really hit me hard.
Since I was a kid, I have always
loved animals and people. I will try my best to treat people or animals as
nicely as I could. If I saw beggars, I will usually give them, not all the
time, but sometimes, and I treat them with food and drink instead of money. There
are many sad stories that they have shared with me and it makes me realize a
lot of things in life.
After I got married to my
husband, we make an effort to provide food and drinks to the homeless in
Central Market, Kuala Lumpur. There are many homeless and hungry individuals
there that really need food. Unfortunately, we couldn't do it every week due to
our tight schedule. We try our best to make it monthly.
However, nowadays, there are
not that many homeless at Central Market because there is major renovation happening
around the area. We try to continue our efforts in other KL city areas that
have homeless people.
There are many other groups
that are also making this effort to help the homeless and the hungry and you
can find them mostly in social media platforms. I love their spirit as they get
together and make it big.
For us, we started small as
partners, and now we have beautiful, kind-hearted people who contribute money
and sometimes effort to help us to help the poor ones. Here are some efforts
that we put in place and we hope to have as many volunteers join in together to
help these communities.
1) Feed the homeless and
hungry
2) Feed and pet the stray dogs
3) Feed and pet the stray cats
1) Feed the homeless and hungry
We do not constrain ourselves
from giving food and drinks only to the homeless. After our first experience of
giving food to a group of homeless, we learned that there are many individuals
that do not look like homeless people, but they are totally hungry and
thirsty, food is all they need.
We avoid judging, we
understand that some might just lose their job, have no place to stay, just lose
their family, encounter financial problems, got sick, have mental problems,
divorce, lost, drunk, drugged, or simply hungry. If someone comes to you and
asks for food, it means that person really needs that food. It's not about free,
it's about the need to fill their empty stomach, or they want to give to
someone or some animals that are in need of food.
2) Feed and pet the stray dogs
I would like to emphasize the species, dogs. Yes, I'm a dog lover, besides being a cat lover. I love dogs since I was a kid, although I used to have one bad experience with a crazy dog when I was little. I ran from the dog and phewwwhh, luckily I survived.
Every time I see a dog, I
always get excited, especially if I see a friendly one. I'm sure you know there
are so many stray dogs out there. Not everyone can deal or like strays. Some
people are afraid of them. But do you know that not all of them are fierce? Do
you know that those strays that are fierce are because they feel afraid of
humans? They feel that way because they are traumatized just like how a human
being would feel and react if they have been bullied or treated badly. It's the
same experience - feeling.
My advice is don't feel afraid
until you are not willing to help a needy dog when they needed the most. It's
alright to take precautionary steps to ensure that you are not getting bitten
or infected by a wounded dog by wearing protective gloves/attire or just being
extra careful. It's always great to give them food, especially bones if you can
find them. They love it. And if you can see, not just to feed them, but they
are some dogs that you can actually pat them (just see if there are the
friendly ones) and they love every single stroke you give them.
These stray dogs and animals
do not just want food, they want to feel love. Best, if you can take them home
and take good care of them. If you don't, there will be bad parties who will do
bad things to them, worse, kill. Really devastated.
Only take them home if you can
really look after them. Do justice to them and yourself. Don’t take them for a
while and throw them away when suddenly you realized that you actually are not
able to care for them. There’s absolutely nothing wrong to care for dogs. All religions teach to do good to others, all living beings. Know what you are doing and
just do what is right.
3) Feed and pet the stray cats
It’s the same as the stray
dogs, they need food and water, and TLC (tender, loving, care). Animals are
just like humans, wanting to be loved and sometimes they show their love in the
most unique manner. If you can, adopt cats that are at the animal shelters or
the strays.
Please don’t buy them at pet
shops, unless you can do both. There are many sad stories at animal shelters.
One of the saddest is when an animal is not managed to get adopted, they have
to put the animal to sleep because they have to make room for those new strays
that need shelters. The same goes for stray dogs. It’s very sad because although
they are trying to help the best that they can, the numbers are too huge for
them to cater to each animal.
Millions of cats and dogs are
killed each year because the shelters are too full. That’s the reason why it’s
advisable to spay the strays that you come across and your pets too. It is sad,
but it is even worse to let them breed as their generation will be homeless,
bullied, and killed.
Why I wrote this article is to
briefly introduce you to the world of homelessness and strays. I myself need to do
more although sometimes I feel bad because I struggle to do more because of
lack of time. Perhaps, most of us would feel the same way, due to time, we don’t
have time to do this – giving back to others.
All I can say is try. Try to
go out there and experience giving a loaf of bread to the homeless. Feel it yourself,
how to give people the things that they need – food, water, blanket, clothes, vital
items, etc. When a cat or a dog comes to you, instead of shooing it away or
beat or scold, why don’t you buy them a fish or food that they can eat, and give it
to them.
Once you are ready, buy cat
and dog food and keep them in your car and your house. Every time if there are
strays, give them enough, so that they won’t feel so hungry. Give them clean
water too. It will be quite hard at first because it’s not something that you
used to do. Once it’s your routine, it will be easier and you will be enjoying
doing it.
When you are really ready, do
something bigger. It takes time to do all this. It takes dedication and you
need to be committed. It does involve money, time, emotional feelings, people
can also unnecessarily misjudge you, but you just do it slowly and wholeheartedly.
If you have the money, if you don’t have time, find people that can help you to
do it for you on your behalf. That also works and great. As long as you want to
help what you can, that’s good.
I have learned from the
homeless, poor, and strays. I also have learned from the rich. I hope we can
learn more from everyone for us to understand better the world we live in and
how we can make better certain things that we think are good for us and others.
I know you have also your experiences. If you can share yours. I’m happy to
know more and learn from you too.
Thank you for reading my
article. I do hope anyone that is reading this article can help a soul today or
do anything good to the environment and the world. Start with yourself, then
you will eventually want to do more and more. It will be a habit. A good one.
Share your stories,
experiences to inspire more hearts to do more today and tomorrow for a better
us.
You can share your thoughts and interest in joining us to do more at snaznim@gmail.com
You can share your thoughts and interest in joining us to do more at snaznim@gmail.com
#kinderfriday
A kinder you and me. J
Lots of love,
Sofia
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