This post is in response to a prompt by @galenkp.
If you could be a rock star or a volunteer at a refugee camp this weekend which would you choose and why?
I am by no means here to blow my trumpet, far from it, but to expound on my values and passion as it aligns with making a positive impact in the lives of others, especially the helpless and the downtrodden. At personal levels and with very scanty material resources, I have helped out quite a few.
Every festive season, I make it a point of duty to provide food and support for at least twenty beggars on the street. A lot of them go without food from day to day and would only rely on the little proceeds from their begging activities.
I don't know why I feel a knot tightening in my chest whenever I come across a helpless and hopeless fella, I always feel empathy and compassion for such people.
Mom would say, "You can't save everybody". My husband says the same too. I know I am not a Super woman, just an ordinary girl doing her bit to make the World a better place.
Against this backdrop of empathy, you would appreciate the fact that I'm actually cut out for the volunteer work at the refugee camp, not to be a Rock Star. Agreed, being a Rock Star comes with affluence, recognition and fame but if I have to be any kind of Star, I would want to shine like Mother Theresa, Florence Nightingale, Mary Slessor and the rest of them. These women went down into the annals of history for their humanitarian stances, I would want to do the same. Only then would I be a Rock Star Indeed.
I would choose working in a refugee camp not just for the weekend, because I understand what it means to be displaced, leaving love and family behind or even dead, the trauma that goes with loosing almost everything or everything.
I would want to help these vulnerable people anyway I possibly can. It might be very challenging but I'm never one to run away from one, and just a tiny bit of stirrings of happiness in any heart would have made my work worth the while.
Thank you for reading.
All photos belong to me.