Street walks by the Lighthouse

Oct 14, 2015

By Aaron Lim and Margaret Yoong
Anne Frank once said: “No one has ever become poor by giving,” and that happened at The Lighthouse when two street walks were organized recently.

Street Walk is where The Lighthouse volunteers look out for the homeless, the needy and the marginalized people. When night falls in the city of George Town, you will often see these people sleeping on the pavements, bus stops and pedestrian bridges.

A typical Street Walk includes the distribution of food, water and bare necessities. When more organizations got to know about this, The Lighthouse also started to take this Street Walk experience as an exposure programme for the volunteers and donors.

The Penang Medical College (PMC) Community Service Society came with 17 volunteers. They were joined by two experienced volunteers from The Lighthouse Community Service Centre.

The multi-racial volunteers from PMC prepared hotdogs, banana cakes and mineral water to be distributed to the homeless and marginalized.

After their very First Street Walk, the PMC volunteers felt inspired and were enthusiastically planning for more street walks together with The Lighthouse, so as to reach out and help more needy people on the street.

Next was a Street Walk requested by a former student of The Lighthouse’s very own Children’s Ministry, the Bright Sparks Children’s Learning Centre.

This student mentioned that he came to know of a terminally ill lady, who sponsored for this Street Walk. Unfortunately, she was unable to turn up on the day of the Street Walk as she was unwell.

This former student, who wishes to remain anonymous, was indifferent to education before joining the Bright Sparks at the age of 12. He finished his SPM and continued his studies in Montfort Boys’ Town. Today, he is doing well as a sales representative.

The teachers of Bright Sparks feel proud that their former student has succeeded in life, and is now contributing back to society.