Macam-macam hal…

I was on my way to work last week when a text message came in on my hand phone. Oh no, I don’t read text messages while driving. Too much of a hassle to even attempt it as I’d need to put on my reading glasses to be able to figure out the contents of the message! So big NO to SMS while driving.

When I got to my office, I checked out the message. It was from Rosnah, telling me that she was at the HIV clinic for her appointment and asked where I was. She probably thought I was somewhere at the hospital. I replied, saying I was at my office, adding that I had lots of work to do… in case she expected me to go to the hospital to meet up with her.

After a while, another message came from Rosnah…

“Boleh ke kak bantu saya. Kesempitan duit sangat.”

No wonderlah she was hoping to see me… got udang di sebalik batu… got cicak di sebalik frame…

Oh no! Not another Mrs K in the making!

I didn’t bother to reply. Just because she’s getting help for her daughter under our Children Education Fund, doesn’t mean we are going to help her every time she runs short of money. She is after all working, has only one child to support, and doesn’t need to pay house rental as she’s staying at her mother’s house!

People who are worse off, like Sofie for example, who has 4 schooling children, has to pay house rental, and can’t afford to get a full time job due to her poor state of health, NEVER tried to borrow money from me. She’d just make do with whatever that she has.

So Rosnah just got herself listed under my “be wary of them” clients.

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I received a text message from Sharifah yesterday morning. It was her appointment at the HIV clinic yesterday and usually she’d be spending the night before at Kak Ana’s place so she could be with her baby girl. And usually Kak Ana would drive her to Ipoh for her appointments. Well, the last time they came, they were quite late… resulting in some nagging not only from the staff nurse, but also from the doctor.

Yesterday when Sharifah sent me the text message, it was almost 10.30 am, and they (Sharifah and Kak Ana) had just made a move from their place. Usually it takes more than an hour to reach Ipoh. Uhh… late again? So Sharifah asked me to inform SN that she’d be quite late for her appointment. Maybe she thought I was at the hospital for clinic duty because the last time she went for her blood test, I was there.

Sorry dearie… this time you’d better call SN yourself. So yep, I gave her SN’s number (in case she says she doesn’t have the number) and told her to call SN herself. Ni mesti takut kena marah dengan SN…

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A fellow volunteer called me yesterday. She wanted to recommend her client to be considered for our Education Sponsorship for Children Program. The client used to work as an assistant at a pharmacy, but the pharmacy has closed down and she is now out of a job. She has been trying to get a job… to no avail. So what she’s doing now is she takes care of somebody’s child during the day and gets RM250 per month. That’s not enough for her 3 schooling children. She has been keeping this to herself for quite some time, probably still having some savings to make use of; but has gotten a bit desperate of late.

Well, based on our procedures for the sponsorship program, at least 2 of the committee members need to pay her a visit first for assessment purposes. I have already reserved myself for another group this Saturday, and so I’ve arranged for the assessment visit to be done on Sunday afternoon. If and when approved, the next step will be to look for sponsors…