Rays of hope

My friend was standing outside of the building enrolling people who have already registered as a patient for the dental hygiene camp. There were 12 non-medical volunteers and approximately 10 nurses, dental hygienists, dental assistants and dentist inside the building. Approximately 100 people enrolled for the Dental Camp. The non-medical volunteers were asked to wear black pants and white shirts so that they could be easily identified. The first patient was attended sharp at 7:30 a.m. and the camp continued until 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon. Every volunteer provided patient care with courtesy, discipline and smile in their face. All patients were homeless people who were interested in cleaning their tooth as it was too expensive for them to clean or didn’t have dental insurance.

The patients were first asked to enroll and then asked to go through blood sugar and blood pressure test. Once they finish that they were provide free breakfast consist of bagel, cream, banana along with coffee and water. Later in the afternoon, they were provided lunch with Pasta, bread, butter, chips, pudding and water. It took approximately 20 to 30 minutes for each patient to go through the cleaning procedure. Each volunteer was given a specific task and I was given the role of guarding the entrance to the Dentist/Dental hygienist/Dental Assistants rooms to ensure that everyone was tested for blood sugar and blood pressure.

There was a gentleman who was videotaping the camp and a few young adults were interviewing some of those who attended the camp to find out about their views and what could be done better to improve future camps. Many of them expressed sincerely appreciation for an excellent patient care provided for free by the camp that too with a courteous and smiling service. Almost all of them appreciated the cleanliness, professional work carried out by the medical professional and love that was showered by the volunteers. The camp was the brain child of a physician friend who was doing it for more than 30 years. This camp was organized by our spiritual center in coordination with County Health Department. Every volunteer was background checked before they were allowed to volunteer. There were men and women from various ages both as patients as well as volunteers. Those 7 hours were the most productive hours I had spent in the last few weeks. When I took a nap after standing for 7 hours, I slept like a baby for couple of hours with a great sense of fulfillment.

One of the patients asked me, “Where are you from?” I replied, “I am from India” and she asked again, “Are all Indians these Indians these courteous and compassionate?” When I was wondering what made her to say it, she responded by stating that she was a bearer in an Indian Wedding sometime back and almost all Indian men handed over their used plates in hand instead of making her go around the table.

What nationality or religion, or rays or castes have to do with courtesy and compassion? All one needs to do is to move from selfishness to selflessness or be in the company of those who have such qualities. “Be the change, you wish to see in the world” said Mahatma Gandhi. Mother Teresa said, “We cannot all do great things. But, we can do small things with great love”. Obviously, we can't fix all issues in the world, but we can address a small thing with great love.

Our heart breaks when we see Yazidis women and children run for their life to the mountain terrain and had to spend days together without food not knowing what was going to happen to them. When I watched the video What These Kids Are Doing Will Break Your Heart. At 2:27, I LOST It! - Inspirational Videos of a couple of children in Egypt in areas affected by revolution, I cried aloud. But I was moved by the hope and faith that those children had in their future and the maturity they had to say a few words about those who have decent life.

There is only one religion in the world called the religion of humanity and there is only one language called the language of love. The seeds of life in this world flourish by feeding on love. There is only one way to show our gratitude for our existence and that is to love the fellow beings. Love not only cures the people who receive it but also the people who give it. There is still hope when we see the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT-HBl2TVtI.

 

Dear GG,

Thank you for your first response and appreciation of the service provided. The credit should go to the organizers and I was just a volunteer describing the service project.

A small gestures somewhere in the world would make the world of difference. How painful it is to watch two young kids picking bread crumbs? The answers by that young girl brought tears into my eyes.

Viswa

 

Dear Shanvi,

Thank you for your comprehensive response to this post. You are right. The younger generation is becoming role models even for adults. It is so satisfying to know that so many young men and women provide service to the people in need one way or the other purely to have a great sense of fulfillment and not with any expectations.

Our spiritual center has been providing several services for many years including providing blankets to the people who are homeless during winter, back bags for homeless children in August at the time of school reopening, providing meals to the homeless during November and December for Thanks Giving as well as Christmas, providing hot meals to the homeless either in the Soup Kitchen or in a Church or any other designated place, several medical camps including eye, dental and podiatry, large health screening camps from time to time, tooth paste, tooth brush, soaps, shampoos and other toiletries, service to the battered women, service to the physically and mentally challenged children, mentoring projects, etc. The projects run throughout the year and I have just provided one sample project that I attended. Mostly the spiritual center members attend almost all the projects and has been extremely nice contributing time and money for those noble projects.

Most importantly, it is also heartening to see the young men and women in America contributing so much to the community. My son needed only 75 hours of community service for becoming eligible for Florida Bright Future Scholarship but spent more than 350 hours working for the Hospice because he felt very good serving the elderly terminally ill patients. He was recording the terminally ill patients' messages for their families besides updating their medical records from time to time. The best part is the young adults don't even consider that as an appreciable action on their part and do it with great responsibility and as a duty to the community.

As you rightly said, for many adults in the US, the young men and women are the motivators to do more and more service projects. I see a lot of hope for the future as long as this trend continues.

Viswa

 

Dear Everhappy,

What an irony it is that I had also lost my first version of "Rays of hope" and had to rewrite all over again. You are very correct about watching the kids picking the bread crumbs was heartbreaking but the hope and the attitude of surrender they have is unbelievable. They clearly feel God will save them and go to the extent of saying that let those who have good life be happy. What a maturity to have at that young age.

Thank you for your kind words about my snippets. As you rightly understood, sharing such information is always helpful. My heart swelled with pride when one of the patients asked me about Indians and associated all Indians with compassion. It does not matter where we are from and it is always important we contribute something meaningful to the community we belong. I am a big believer that service not only helps the receiver of such service but most importantly also helps the service giver to transform himself/herself into a fine human being.

Sometimes, I feel hard to write about my involvement in service projects as it might be viewed as self promotion. But it is so encouraging to see the ILites appreciating it. Many people have a view that it is important to share the information about the service project so that it would be mutually beneficial to many around the world.

Viswa

 

Dear Mrs.Srinivasan:

You are absolutely right. The act of kindness not only gives happiness to the receiver but also gives a great sense of fulfillment to the giver. An act of selfless action provided with no expectation nourishes our soul as Cheeniya Sir mentioned. Sometimes, even a smile is a great relief when someone is hurting. That is why Mother Teresa tells us "Not everyone can do great things but all of us can do small things with great love".

Viswa