The Samaritans are a charity that offers a free telephone (and now also message) service to people who are very sad, worried, frightened, or thinking about killing themselves. You do not have to give your name. The volunteers are trained to listen; they do not preach, and they do not rush you into a tidy answer. The idea is that some pain is easier to say to a stranger than to someone who knows you. The organisation began in Britain in the 1950s and now works in many countries. You say the Samaritans, with the. It is named after the good Samaritan in the Bible — the stranger who stays and helps — but this word with a capital S and a plural is the organisation, not “several kind people.” Though actually, each country has its own sister groups and local names; in Taiwan the service students already know is 生命線, which does a similar job.