Makkah: The dream of the volunteers Sondos Al-Darwish and Menna Jamil turned into a reality when they succeeded in joining the field of saving people’s lives and volunteering to provide health services to pilgrims
after years the girls spent in their childhood searching for those who needed help and providing it to them in the simplest ways and as best they could, considering that the smile and the gratitude of others in return for their acts of goodness the biggest reward to gain.
Al-Darwish says, ‘My childhood ambition was attained when I joined a health college, where I learned the basic skills to assist patients, and this enabled me to realize my dream of helping others. So, I started volunteering with the Saudi Red Crescent Authority in 2021 and improved until I became a team leader to help pilgrims from all corners of the world, some of whom suffer from health issues, pushing us to alleviate their pain.’
Nursing student Al-Darwish remembers an emergency case for a pilgrim who suffered from chest pain
s, being unable to describe his condition due to the severity of the pain. Later, he was diagnosed with a stroke. The volunteer managed to deal with the case along with the medical team, applied everything she had studied before, and saved the pilgrim’s life.
Similarly, Health volunteer Menna Jamil volunteered with the Saudi Red Crescent Authority about four years ago to serve pilgrims, which honed her skills until she became a team leader.
Jamil recounted one of the situations that touched her during volunteer work, saying, ‘A blind female patient at the Grand Mosque in Makkah asked me to sit in front of her after I succeeded along with my medical team in helping to relieve her pain, so she put her hands on my face, as if she wanted to convey her deep gratitude and happiness, after our help, in a message that summed up thousands of words, this was indescribable, and I was filled with great happiness.’
The experiences of the two volunteers demonstrate the necessity of practising social and community partic
ipation with enthusiasm, a humanitarian spirit, and diligent work to spread knowledge and goodness, benefit others, and represent an excellent example for society.
Source: Saudi Press Agency