Volunteering is inbuilt in everyone. If you have ever come forward to do anything for the sake of
others, you are a volunteer. If you have taken a friend to a hospital, if you have offered an old lady a
seat, if you have ever given a donation to a good cause, you are already a volunteer. No one can say
he or she is not a volunteer, we all are born volunteers.

What motivates us to volunteer depends on how connected and emotional we feel about the given
cause. Some volunteer to donate blood, some to plant and water trees, some to donate for school
toilets, some help the disabled and the fragile. I know of people who have volunteered to work on
every aspect of life and social living, that I did not even know existed till I met those people. People
who help distribute condoms in areas with high numbers of sex workers, volunteers who attend
special and secret conventions of marginalised people to help them with organising and funding.
Volunteers are at every nook and corner of the society. What the Government and the general public
fail to do, is done by volunteers.

I call you do one such work. Please come forward to work to save lives we are losing to suicides.
India loses about 1,60,000 (as per National Crime Report Bureau) to 2,30,000 (according to World
Health Organisation) lives per year. This number is close to the number India lost to COVID-19 in
one year (we lost more than 4,60,000 lives to COVID-19 in two years).

Suicide is a complicated problem, it is due to various factors, it is sudden, it is unpredictable and
therefore we assume it cannot be prevented. Though it is true that suicides have many reasons and
causes, it is preventable, because in most cases it is not sudden.
Most suicides are thought about for months, planned for weeks and then postponed a few times
before they are actually committed. At any time during these months and weeks before the suicide
the person is able to talk about his problems to someone in a confidential and trusting way, the
suicide thought is given up and that life is saved.

The pattern of the behaviour of people before they commit suicide is almost the same, all over the
world. The most common behaviour across all nations, religions and status is that they try to talk to
people around them about their problems, when they find no one who can understand their
problems and the suffering it is causing them they decide to commit suicide. Even if there are
people who are willing to listen the problems are seen as small or trivial and are not taken seriously.
when taken seriously the solutions offered or the attitude taken by the person listening does not go
well with the person thinking of ending his or her life. Sometimes it is the family that is closest to
us, that becomes the very cause of suicide.

That is why we need Suicide Helplines like Nesam and Sneha, where a person without revealing
their identity can talk to another person without any fear of being ridiculed, belittled, ignored,
shamed or misunderstood. The anonymity that Nesam offers is valuable in preventing suicides.
Apart from the anonymity, Befrienders who are trained to talk to people in emotional distress do a
better job than a person without such a training. Nesam being a free of cost service aids people to
seek help without worrying about money. Moreover they talk to another ordinary human being who
is in no way different from them, they do not talk to professionals where they are directed to do
things.

Volunteering to be a Befriender is one of the noblest things that you can do in your lifetime, because
you will be saving lives, the job invested in the medical field for which we call the medical
professionals noble.
If you can devote 4 hours of your time weekly, to Nesam, you become a saviour of life. What more
do you aspire to do with your time?

Even if you can’t give that time or if the task of being a Befriender is daunting to you, you can help
Nesam in so many other ways:

• You can organise events in your office, neighbourhood, apartment complex, or any place where
  people can gather, to spread the news of Nesam
• You can help us to conduct events with your physical presence
• you can make donations and motivate others to contribute to this cause – since taking the message
  of Nesam to every common man is a costly task.
• You can just talk to your friends and family about suicide with what you can learn about it from
  Nesam’s website and various social media platforms,

Volunteer today for a society that does not let it’s people die without help and support.

Call 94430-96108