Stories of People

The stairs on a hallway were full of worn shoes. Inside the first storey a group of people have gathered together. They are all sitting on the floor, against the wall. Their hands are on their laps, palms up. Soon the whole room is filled with Islamic prayer. When the praying ends, they wash their faces with their hands. I wish I could understand at least a little bit.

This is my second time at the Drug users’ Drop-in centre in Kuala Lumpur’s Chow Kit district, one of the oldest areas in the city. There's on average 50 000 drug users in Kuala Lumpur and only one shelter offers them food while working for preventing HIV and other viruses by handing out clean needles. Most of the visitors to the drop-in center are homeless.

The first time I visited the centre, the programme manager was retiring and giving his last speech to the community. This time the group had gathered together to honour the memory of him.

I couldn't really follow what the prayers were about them being in Arabic. Instead of taking part in the praying, I tried to remember the things he said on his retirement speech. I met him only once, but his words affected me strongly. He had gotten a second chance in life, after going through an era of being homeless and suffering from drug addiction. He seemed to be happy to his life now as it was. He had a job, loving family and home. It takes a lot of courage to fall so heavily and rise again.

From him and the whole centre, I learned to see how much help and support one can get from the community. His speech and the commemoration helped me to put my own worries aside and gave me perspective.

In the end I couldn’t help but wonder, why do we always need more? Why do we have the urge for achieving so much? Why do we ask so much from ourselves? And finally, while trying to over achieve, we get lost in somewhere where humanity can be forgotten.