Volunteering Kindness

As President of Samaritans in Spain, I was honoured to participate in the Befrienders Worldwide Conference 2024, held in Columbo, Sri Lanka. The roots of Befrienders Worldwide can be traced back to Samaritans UK, which established Befrienders International, a crucial platform for coordinating ‘befriending’ agencies in over 40 countries.

Along with myself, delegates from across the globe came together to discuss the very prevalent issues of mental and emotional well-being that can affect anyone at any time and, in some cases, even lead to suicide.

Traditional dancers at the Welcoming Ceremony

The Inauguration Ceremony was a truly cultural occasion, with male and female dancers in traditional costumes and the lighting of the symbolic tree. This ensured that light shone upon us as we came together to learn from each other and forge new connections.

Donna Williams presenting at Befrienders Worldwide Conference

Aside from attending as a delegate, I was privileged to be chosen as one of the speakers.  I was able to share a little more about Samaritans in Spain and how we work and speak on a new initiative we have undertaken.  Thanks to a collaboration with the Santiago Embassy of Chile, we can now provide our services to English speakers residing in Chile.  Before this, they had nowhere to turn to besides the Embassy, which felt ill-equipped to handle such delicate matters.

During my time at the conference, I heard from renowned professors specialising in suicidology and learnt just how truly important ‘active listening’ is as a suicide prevention tool.  I was humbled by the extreme situations and personal trauma that some of the organisations were responding to with kindness and emotional support daily.  

I met a tenacious lady in her eighties from an organisation in Sri Lanka who introduced online training when the pandemic prevented her from carrying out face-to-face.  She described how she didn’t really understand the online world and turned to her grandchildren to assist her in what she believed was possible. 

I also heard from an organisation located in Lebanon that has been developing an

evaluation tool to measure the effectiveness of their presence.

Some of the conference delgate showing love

Each workshop I attended brought new ideas, discoveries, and ways of doing things. Not everything was agreed upon, but healthy debates and discussions ensued, bringing us all ever closer. Something truly magical happens when like-minded people come together, and all egos are put to one side. It made no difference the role we played in our organisation; we all had an equal voice, which I found to be truly inspiring.

During the conference, the Welsh term ‘cynefin’ (pronounced kuh-nev-in) was used to describe us as a community, and I couldn’t agree more.

All the delegates in their branded t-shirts!