Paying a visit at YMY for Service Project follow up

Saturday morning, before visiting Yue Miao Yuan Home for Disabled, the idea for this article was quite clear: I’m going to report about facility, numbers and other practical situation. Then I reached the location and met Sam and Michel and we were introduced to the Manager, Mrs. Lyn.

We visited the facility and we “inspected” the bathrooms because it is one of  Service Committee projects to help them refurbishing them and we wanted to better understand their needs. Residents were enjoying the sunny day having an outdoor activity so indoor visit was quite easy and fast. We started talking about real needs and status of standard residents. Not a single case is alike: different levels and causes of disability, different ages and different family situation. I started feeling deeply touched but I had my coup de grace when we entered the room of most severe cases: it was like a punch in the stomach and my eyes felt something was happening. I had a moment of panic, cause I know you have to be strong in this kind of situations, for many different reasons and I didn’t know how to handle my emotions.  Suddenly a young resident came to us, smiling and saying ‘Hello, ok, ok” . He shook our hands and hugged us. My feelings totally changed in a fraction of second. I felt renewed and my heart was full of joy. We were invited to join outdoor activity , so we did. I even played badminton and it was real fun… actually some residents had even more fun cause I know I’m terrible in sports: they really had some comic situation to watch.

At the end of the visit we discussed about how RCS could contribute more to support them and we agreed that it could be a good idea to organize a “ working day” , helping them re-painting the facility and any other good activity will come to our mind is more than welcome.

Here is the moral of the story: we receive more than what we give and I touched it with my hands today.