It’s almost end of January 2014. How time flies. By right I should have already settled all matters pertaining to the children’s back-to-school expenses, but as it is, I am still getting messages from my clients about various expenses that need to be paid by the children.
A few clients however, especially first time recipients of our education assistance, seem to get a bit “over”, treating us as though their children’s education matters have become our responsibility. We give them a certain amount, they complain it’s not enough. Some complain how come they didn’t get any of the monthly amount last December. Duh! The monthly pocket money and bus fares are meant for schooling. They don’t expect us to give them the same amount even during year-end school holidays, do they?
Making things worse, a few of the volunteers told their clients to contact me direct when it came to questions regarding schooling matters, or for any matters pertaining to financial assistance. Wow! If I have to personally answer to all the queries by the clients, regardless of who the assigned buddies are, I might as well become the buddy to those clients as well!
So what do I do? Usually, when I get clients who tend to get a bit too demanding, I have no choice but to remind them that we are just an NGO doing VOLUNTARY work… that we are not paid to do the job… that we ourselves need to work (other than our voluntary work) to support ourselves… that we are there to give them ASSISTANCE, not to take over responsibility of their financial needs.
My older clients know that too well by now. Hopefully the newer clients will understand that they too will have to make an effort to overcome their financial problems instead of totally depending on assistance from others.
Our main objective after all, is to help the clients become independent, not dependent on others all their lives.
Thankfully, a few families have come a long way and have become not only independent, but also successful in their own way. The satisfaction of seeing such cases? Priceless!
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