幫助無家可歸的人 Helping the Homeless

My Main Motivation

動力所在

When I started university in London, it was quite a shock coming from a smAll village in Sussex to a big city. You see so many homeless people and you never know how to act. Do you talk to them, ignore them, walk away, give them money? To be honest, I knew nothing about homeless people and they kind of scared me. You hear all these stories that they’re alcoholics, high on drugs and thieves.

剛到倫敦讀大學時，從薩塞克斯的一個小鎮來到大城市的轉變確實讓我很震驚。你會看見很多露宿者，卻根本不知道要怎樣做。你會跟他們聊天，無視他們，走開還是給他們錢？說實話，我對露宿者一無所知，還覺得他們挺嚇人的。你聽過這些故事——他們是酒鬼，因吸毒而神智恍惚，或者是小偷什麼的。

A friend was involved in a project with homeless people so I decided to go along one week. Every Sunday evening, a group of students make sandwiches in the student halls and then drive to Holborn to hand them out. Initially, I imagined we’d just go, hand out the food and leave, but we actually stand around for about an hour talking to them and hearing their stories.

我的一個朋友參加了一個幫助露宿者的計劃，所以我決定找一個星期跟着去。每個週日晚上，一羣學生會在學生大廳裏做三明治，然後開車到霍爾本區派發。起初我以爲我們只需要去到那裏，派完食物就離開。但實際上我們在那裏待了差不多一個小時，跟他們聊天，聆聽他們的故事。

The main thing I have realised is that homeless people are real people with amazing experiences. Sometimes you just can’t believe the reasons for them being homeless, but there are good stories, too. There was a guy that kept saying that he had his name on a housing list and that he had a job as a road sweeper. I thought it was all talk and then he came along one week and said: “I’m just coming along to say bye; I’ve got myself a place.” It was amazing and really nice that he remembered us and came back to tell us. It’s very satisfying when good things like that happen.

我認識到露宿者也是有血有肉的人，他們有着非凡的經歷。有時候，他們露宿街頭的原因簡直讓人難以置信；當然也有好故事。有這麼一個男人總是說自己是一名街道清掃工，住房救濟名單上有他的名字。我以爲他只是說說而已，但是有一個星期他回來說：“我只是順道過來說再見，我找到落腳點了。”他記得我們，還回來告訴我們這個消息，這實在是太棒了。每當發生這樣的好事，我都會感到很滿足。

Getting More Involved

進一步投入

After a year of helping out, they asked me if I wanted to get a bit more involved, so now I organise everything. I make sure there are people to do the shopping, the bus is going to turn up and that we’ve got a driver. Next year I’ll be doing even more when I become the coordinator of the university’s Community Action Group, which incorporates all sorts of volunteering projects. Initially, boosting my CV didn’t even cross my mind; I just wanted to interact with homeless people, but being in charge of the whole thing is going to be a much bigger job.

在那裏幫忙了一年後，他們問我想不想進一步參與其中，於是現在所有事情都由我組織。我要確保有人負責購物，公交車會按時到達，還得有一個駕駛員。明年等我當上學校社區行動組的協調員負責組織協調全部志願計劃後，我將有更多事情要做。起初，我從沒想過這會豐富自己的簡歷；我只想與露宿者交流，然而負責所有事情將會是一項更龐大的工作。

Working on this project has encouraged me to stay connected with homeless people in the future. I’m training to be a doctor, and I can see myself working in specialist surgeries for homeless people eventually. I’ve seen some doctors freak out when a homeless person comes in to A&E (Accident and Emergency). They don’t know where to start—they would normally ask questions like: “Where do you live?” or “What did you do yesterday?” but how can you converse like this with a homeless person? From that point of view, it has been very useful for me to become comfortable talking to people in all sorts of situations.

參與這個計劃鼓勵我將來與露宿者保持溝通。我正在接受醫生培訓，我能想象自己最終爲露宿者進行外科手術的情景。當露宿者來到急症室時，我見過一些醫生很慌張。他們不知道從何開始——他們平時會問這類問題：“你住在哪裏？”或“你昨天做了什麼？”但你怎麼能跟一個露宿者說這些呢？從這個角度看，我的經歷對我很有幫助，它讓我在任何情況下都能自如地跟人交談。

Fitting It into My Life

工作生活兩不誤

Until someone referred to me as a volunteer, I’d never really thought of myself as one! Young people don’t want to volunteer because it sounds like what old ladies do—that is what I think of volunteering, even though I’m doing it myself. I guess the key is to find something you enjoy that will fit into your life—most people aren’t aware of the different ways you can volunteer in life.

直到有人說我是一個志願者，我才意識到自己是其中一員！年輕人不想從事志願工作是因爲這聽起來像是老婦人做的事——我確實是那樣想的，雖然自己正在做志願工作。我認爲關鍵是找出可以融入你生活、並且是你喜歡做的事情——大多數人沒有意識到生活中有很多不同途徑可以從事志願工作。

I’d definitely encourage other young people to start volunteering and try to make them realise that it doesn’t have to be an enormous commitment. We’re very adamant that volunteers can come once, twice, every week, whatever suits them. Most people don’t want commitment and at the end of the day we are all pretty selfish, so it has to be flexible.

我絕對鼓勵其他年輕人開始志願工作，我也想讓他們知道當志願者不一定要承擔巨大的責任。我們一直認爲志願者可以每週來一次或兩次，只要適合他們就行了。大多數人不想承擔重任，歸根到底，我們都是很自私的，所以志願時間一定要靈活。

Getting More than I Bargained For

額外收穫

What’s more, I made a lot of friends during my volunteering. I never imagined when I first took this on that I’d find a group of brilliant friends, but I have discovered that volunteering is a great way to meet people. All of my best friends through university have been made through the project—we all have the same outlook on life and we’re all willing to give two hours a week. It’s not much to give and you get so much out of it personally.

另外，我在當志願者期間交到了很多朋友。剛開始參加志願工作時，我從未想過自己會交到一羣那麼棒的朋友，但我發現當志願者是認識人的好方法。我在大學的好朋友都是在參與（志願）計劃時認識的——我們對生活都有同樣的看法，而且都願意每個星期抽出兩小時。你無需付出很多，卻可以從中收穫良多。