My name is Sebastian Olejniczak and I have been a volunteer at the Piaski hospital   since March, 2014, but my training began in 2013. At my high school, we were offered a chance to enrol in the Fatebenefratelli volunteer course at Marysin.  This was where I met the coordinator, Eva, who organized the course. I immediately realized that she was a good and open human being and I thought it would be wonderful if there were more people in the world like her. I told myself that the time had come for me to make something of my life, and that therefore I would not change my mind and would persevere in this direction.

During the course, I learned many things: not a day went by without my learning something new and becoming a better person; with every day that passed, I learned something about the world of Hospitality and about myself. Thanks to this experience I was able to deepen my understanding of myself.

As a volunteer, I did encounter some initial difficulties, for example difficulties in communicating with others. But I was not discouraged. Rather, it made me realize how much I had to learn if I were to carry out my mission as best I could. Before then, my only experience of being a volunteer had been in fund-raising.

After getting to know the Co-Workers and the other volunteers working in the hospital, I was happy to learn that there are still human beings like this. Now, I need to learn to do the most important thing, and that is to deal with the patients. Writing this testimony makes me aware that I have only three months of experience as a volunteer. And yet I have never before experienced so much joy and happiness at being able to help other human beings, even if only with some small act of assistance, a word of comfort, of consolation, an exchange of smiles. The most beautiful words in the world, that is “I love you”, have been said to me here. Often it is enough to go and visit a patient, to ask him or her how they are doing and in exchange to receive much more, for example, an interesting story with a moral, a life lesson or, even more importantly, an open heart.

I am truly happy with the experience of being a volunteer inside this hospital and am in no way sorry that I made this decision. It has made me look at the world in another way and I feel I have become a better person.