CV NEWS FEED // A group of Malaysian Catholics who recently lived for a night alongside the homeless in the streets of a suburb as part of a Lenten ministry campaign found it a “humbling experience.”
“Being homeless for a night was a heart-warming lesson in human fraternity among the last, the lost and the least,” one of the participants, Melina Yeoh, wrote in an article that Herald Malaysia published on March 15.
Yeoh and 16 other Catholics aged 17 to 79 from eight different parishes in the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur participated in the Archdiocesan Office for Human Development Lenten Campaign with the Ministry of Poor. The event began with Mass at 5 p.m. and a short briefing. Then, the group went out into the city with only the clothes on their backs, a piece of cardboard for sleeping on, and their identity cards.
The group had their first encounter with homeless people in the suburb of Chow Kit when they tried to find food for dinner. According to Yeoh, they met two men who gave them advice for sleeping on the streets. They told the group to remain alert and sleep in shifts to avoid being robbed.
The group then split into four smaller groups and continued to walk the streets, distributing their extra food and talking with the homeless.
“The love from our street brothers is always flowing, even when we searched for a safe place to sleep,” Yeoh wrote. “One street brother advised us to find a brightly lit place to avoid mosquitoes … When we chose a clean, unoccupied brightly lit corridor a street brother walked up and told us that we would be drenched if it rained. Then he showed us a more suitable adjacent block where he was sleeping.”
Yeoh’s group made friends with a man whom she referred to as “Fred” to protect his identity. They ended up sleeping in his street, though she added that she woke up hourly because of the heat and humidity.
She wrote that during the night, there were many peaceful interactions with passersby, homeless people and security patrol teams.
“If I was alone on the streets, I would feel the danger of being exposed to all risks, I would be afraid that my IC (identity card) and other precious possessions would be stolen,” Yeoh wrote. “I only did it for one night; Fred and friends do it every day.”
Yeah wrote that she now feels more “connected,” on an emotional level, with anyone walking on the streets who is carrying a cardboard, and she prays that they find a safe place to sleep.
“We pray that through this activity, we will change our way of living and be more appreciative of what we have and what we can do to help more people in need,” Yeah said.
