Tentatively celebrating voluntary work abroad

KNZ (Kunsill Nazzjonali taz-Zghazagh) is today organising an activity in Ghar id-Dud, Sliema, in recognition of Maltese youths who do voluntary work abroad.

Besides enjoying the musical entertainment generously provided by Made to Measure, The Jazz Trio, Ira Losco and Corkskrew, a number of youths will briefly be presenting accounts of their voluntary experiences in foreign countries and what these travels have meant to them personally.

Kicking off at 8.30 p.m., there will also be videos depicting such experiences and an art workshop in which everyone is encouraged to participate. One can personally meet and speak to many young people who have done voluntary work with different populations and make it an opportunity to obtain information and contacts about the various groups who every year get together to offer some of their free time in order to help those in need. As these youths will show, volunteering may not only be an occasion to help others but also an unforgettable experience.

I myself have been doing voluntary work in Malta and in Palermo for a number of years now. And to me, working alongside the Missionaries of Charity in Palermo has been the most amazingly rewarding and inspiring experience I have ever lived in 22 years.

The sisters' humility, their patience, their love, their sense of dire reality in life have been to me gems in a coal mine. Moreover, their divine ability to make contact with any other human being coming to their door in La Kalsa, with whatever baggage he/she is carrying with them, is something from which I believe we could all learn.

Most people imagine this family of sisters to be angels on earth helping, praying and providing for the poor children and their families of the slum area they live in. It is true they do all of these things. I myself was lucky to participate in a five-week summer school for the children. I had the occasion to visit the sisters in the winter season where we often gave out groceries to the "poorest of the poor" or decorated the house in time for Christmas so as to give the homeless residents a chance to enjoy this lovely holiday. A chance they may never have had. Or a chance they may be missing from a long-lost happier home or family, perhaps in a different country.

However, the sisters somehow manage to do more than all this. Yes, they help, pray and provide for the poor, the sick, the homeless, the lonely... the list of needy human beings in this world is endless I believe. But really the way they help is different from what I feel a lot of people understand it to be. They do not come with bricks to build houses. They do not provide barrels of water for the poorer ones to wash with if their plumbing system does not work. They do not give out cash unless there is an exceptional reason to do so.

Yes, they give out food on more than one occasion. They offer a warm bed to sleep in at night if need be. Their door is practically always open. But they mostly make use of their own meagre resources and those of the poor people who come to their door. They reflect the people' s poverty and they wondrously, "not by words but by our example", show them how they best make use of what they already have.

Perhaps a person might just have a good heart to rely on, and no clothes or food. But to the sisters, whatever it is that God has seen fit to bestow on each and every one of us on this earth is as priceless and as precious as gold. I think such a principle is best understood if experienced or seen with one's own eyes.

Missionaries of Charity are everywhere in the world. They always have a home. So if you ever feel the desire to see something that you have not seen, if you think you have seen it all, if you think that there is nothing else left in the world worth trying or experiencing, then find a house with a light blue and white door. If you stand there long enough eventually you will spot women in white and blue dresses wrapped around their humble bodies. Approach them, and I trust that the minute you step into their house, you too will find peace of mind and a true heart.

Ms Zammit is a 22-year old psychology graduate. She has been doing voluntary work in Malta with the Missionaries of Charity, with the Salesian community and with various other organisations since she was 16. She has also been to Palermo six times in the past three years.