My name is Petra Štokić, I am the outreach work manager and volunteer coordinator in Depaul Croatia. I began to get to know and adopt Vincentian spirituality and charism during my high school years. Today, fifteen years later, with a deep sense of belonging to the Vincentian Family, I live the charism of St. Vincent de Paul by working in Depaul Croatia, whose work is based on Vincentian values. I see my own job as a call to serve people who are experiencing various forms of poverty and exclusion. Specifically, I do it through the outreach work where I regularly, weekly, with a team of volunteers go to the streets to meet street homeless people, who are socially rejected, abandoned, lonely, often physically and mentally ill, affected by various types of addictions, disappointed and looking for the sense of life. Through outreach work, the homeless are provided with a range of quality services: nutrition, hygiene, basic medical care, referral to acquiring social rights and psychosocial support. When meeting them on the streets, we all approach the poor with open heart and spirit, trying to understand their situation, to know their reality, to be attentive to their needs and to encourage them to become aware of their own dignity. Living with them and fighting for them made them become “my poor”. When I go out on the street and go to where they are and approach them with a caring heart, whatever they may be, I feel that I always answer God by telling him “here I am”. And I know that then I am what I need to be because I do what I am called to do. In addition to the outreach work, I also spend part of the working week in the day centre Haven House. I especially love Sundays – the day when I serve the poor, listen, pray with them and through catechesis I have the opportunity to strengthen their faith and hope that their suffering makes sense and that they are not abandoned by God or people. In addition to working with the clients of the Haven House, my role is to coordinate volunteers, help them find their place in Depaul Croatia where they can give their time and talents to those in need. I look forward to the richness in diversity, the exchange of experiences, the cooperation and mutual support that is present between staff and volunteers. I am grateful to be a part of the activities of Depaul Croatia, which in an organised way brings changes in the lives of the poor and the gift of Vincentian charism, which does not allow retreat, but always inspires to serve.
