In my years as a blogger, I have received several private and confidential emails from people. Three of them were from girls who got pregnant. One was about husband converting their children to ensure custody. Then, there were several about infidelity.
I had gotten involved in grief support, breastfeeding support (you know….postnatal moms are the hardest to please because they sometimes just want to use you as to unburden their guilt and they can go on and on and on just to justify their actions) but had no other personal experiences in cases like suicidal thoughts, pregnancies and infidelities.
Just a couple of days ago, I got a request from The Befrienders to help them promote their services. It is so timely as I had been perturbed with the increasing number of young children suicides. These happened here in Penang.
I knew The Befrienders existence for a long time already but had never really meet them in person. Two years ago, a few of my friends asked me to join them for a course by The Befrienders but I wasn’t able to volunteer my time to be a Befriender so I didn’t take up the course.
So, this is only a small effort from me to help them to promote the service.
The Befrienders KL is one of the largest non-religious, non-sectarian, non-political NGOs who provide emotional support to Malaysians regardless of class, race, religion, age or gender. Our organisation is run by a small unit of administrative staff and over 100 trained volunteers. The Befrienders KL receives about 20,000 calls and emails each year, that is, about 50-60 cries for help EVERY day. Our clients, whose ages range from 10 to 90 years old, contact us out of frustration, pain and despair. Many of them have suicidal thoughts. Often, they feel that the world and their loved ones have shut them out.
We have been doing this 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for the past 40 years. Every day, our volunteers come in to man three- or four-hour shifts. We feel that what we are doing is worthwhile, because at any one time, someone may call, and we may succeed in pulling that person back from the abyss of despair. No one willingly wishes to die, yet many have toyed with the idea of suicide at some point in their lives.
So, remember, when there seems like no light at the end of the tunnel, find help. Talk to someone. Write to someone. You have the option to remain anonymous. Nothing is worth dying for. The Befrienders KL contact is over here http://www.befrienders.org.my/service.html
The star reported the suicide case increase recent year and I think we really need organization like befriended to help out our “sick friend”.
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I once emailed to the befrienders in my deepest despair and received no response from them. And their phone numbers didn’t work too.
Just thought I would share my experience on them.