Helping Others with Empathy

半岛十二月水灾
Peninsular December Flood

In response to December Peninsular Flood, 7979 initiated Disaster Response Mechanism on the first instance, upon our recce team returned from the flood hit zone, immediately a disaster response plan was drafted, followed on was our volunteer recruitment activity. Our first stage of the flood relief was to mobilise volunteers for house cleaning.

Joyce’s original plan for applying leave was to go back to hometown and be with her family, but when she received notice from HISTEAM 7979 regarding volunteers recruitment for flood relief in Klang Valley, she immediately decided to cancel off her original plan and registered herself to be a volunteer instead, as she has always been following on 7979 news and wishing to be part of it.

December 27, stood amidst the mass group of volunteers, she had been assigned to a group of 10 individuals. “In the past, we always use our ‘visual sense’ to look at the disaster zone, but this time, when I’m physically here, the feeling I sensed was totally different from what I imagined… ” Joyce shared that this was her first time entering into a disaster zone, not only her visual sense, her other senses such as smell, taste and touch have all taken a full blast. She expressed further, once entering into the disaster zone, the odour that immediately greet them was so sickening, that she had to walk away to get some fresh air, only after a while she managed to put her guts together before entering again to clean up the house that was assigned to them.

A cleaning team of 10 individuals with 5 male and 5 female, although they were all from different churches, but they work well together with one heart to serve the flood victims, this is so moving. Joyce also praised a few of the youngsters, “I thought the youngsters could not cope with such condition or will keep complaining of being too tired, but they turned out to be an encouragement to me!” In the whole process of cleaning, the volunteers had been very positive and took initiative in cleaning, they would brush the wall that had been washed by water jet until everyone was satisfied with the wall.

When we were done with the first house, we moved on to clean a nearby house after our lunch. Compare to the first house which was full of mud and rubbish, the condition of this house was much better, the rubbish had been cleared and the house had been washed once. “This is the first time I witnessed how a sofa can be so heavy, even 5 men cannot move it. The reason simply is, after it was soaked with flood water, the weight of the sofa became unimaginable…” Joyce shared how they ended up washing the second house, it was actually requested by the house owner when he saw them helping out with the first house. “If he had not asked for our assistance, I believe it’ll be a very toilsome task for him and his family.”

In the midst of cleaning, the house owner noticed the 7979 vests that they were wearing, so he asked the volunteers. Then the volunteer introduced 7979 to him, and explained that this cleaning effort was all volunteering service, it is free of charge. The house owner was so touched.

“Other than having a sense of fulfilment, actually I’m very glad that I can help up and contribute physically,” Joyce stated, washing two houses within a day was really very tiring, especially when one of the houses was filled with mud, but the joy that came with it made it worthwhile.

“When bad things do not happen to us, it is really difficult for us to have empathy”, Joyce had a deep reflection after this volunteering experience. Hope that more people will heed the call of helping others, not out of sympathy, but out of empathy.

Lastly, she joked with those youngsters and said: “I am a lady of 50+ years old, my body and stamina are not as good as you all…” In toiling, laughter and moving moments, a day of volunteering work came to an end.

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=7345775895436256&id=171296316217619&sfnsn=mo&_rdr