As a Salvo, you meet the people the world has forgotten.
The lonely, the lost, the people who through no fault of their own have ended up alone - feeling as if not a single person in the world cares if they are dead or alive. It can break your heart.
Here are a couple of stories from our welfare workers:
"Charlie, an elderly gentleman, turned up at one of our Salvos Emergency Centres a few weeks ago. He was in tears. He’d just come from having his pet dog put to sleep.
Charlie told us, he’d spent his lifesavings trying to save his little mate. The money didn’t concern him, but this dog was his best friend, his life.
We set about finding another dog for Charlie. Each week when we visited, Charlie would ask me 'have you found me a doggy?'
Finally came the day when we could answer yes. A little terrier needed a home. He was a bit raggedy and could do with a bath and a hair-cut, but when Charlie saw him the tears came again. Now 'Scruffy' gives Charlie a reason to get out of bed each day."
But it's not just the elderly...
"The Council rang and said they had this young lady they wanted us to see. She was homeless, and they said she was a little bit ‘different’. When she came here she wore a beanie over her eyes, and kept looking down at the floor. She’d never look at you.
Slowly she gained a trust in us, until one day she told me that as a child she’d been abused. Since then she’s been having counselling, and it’s really done a lot for her. She’s clean and well-dressed, smiles and looks you in the eye. She’s moving on with life.
It’s been a life-changing thing for me too, to be trusted with such a deep pain. I had to walk the walk with her If I do nothing else in my time here, I’ll feel I’ve done something worthwhile."
It’s mums and kids forced from their homes because of violence. It’s teenagers lost and frightened, searching for a safe place. It’s all those people broken by pain or poverty or illness, whose lives feel empty because they are all alone.
