The Challenge that Comes with Helping
If there’s one thing I learned all throughout the ESL activity that we did for our CSR class, it would be that helping isn’t as easy as I thought it was. That is - if you really want to help. A monetary donation helps heaps, of course, if you have the funds for it - but going beyond is much much more difficult. While my group had the best intentions at heart, there were still many things that we failed to consider, and ultimately put us at a struggle and briefly dampened our spirits.
We failed to see everything from their perspective. We were so eager to help that we didn’t even consider if they would understand our proposal, and the intentions behind it. To give context, our proposal was to set-up an online shop for our partner community, as they create and sell products as part of their many livelihood projects. As the world fully transitioned to online because of the pandemic, it was a great opportunity to expand their reach, and establish an online presence which could be a more sustainable alternative for them rather than keep a physical stall or rent space. Online selling would allow them to work in the comforts of their home, and they can avoid the hassle of public commute.
However, we didn’t anticipate the fact that everything might not make sense to them, or that they will be having difficulty on visualizing what we wanted them to see. This was evident after our group’s first meeting with our partner community to pitch our proposal. It wasn’t enough that we had their best interests at mind when we drafted the proposal, we should also be able to assist them in understand how this could be of help to them. This reminds me of the sad reality why vote buying still works towards many poor Filipino families, but I digress.
Another challenge we stumbled upon was the lack of response from our partner community. Our leader, Pat, had already reached out multiple times to Ms. Anafe, and even sought out the help of Niku, one of our coordinators, to no avail. Deadlines were stretched and we found ourselves working through the holiday just to meet the requirements, and while there was ultimately nothing we could do, this was also something that we should have been prepared for.
The activity definitely taught me a lot, and gave me a perspective to appreciate. While we were ultimately able to iron out the creases that we’ve encountered during this journey, the struggles we’ve had have hammered and bettered us. I’ll definitely be more prepared the next time around, and I’m glad I’ve been given an opportunity to help as it has given me the basic do’s and don’ts of volunteer work, a reference most useful in the future.
For now, I’ll continue to do my best as we prepare for the webinar and final meeting with our partner community.
Hoping for the best.
