You Can’t Help Them All

I have some sad news today.

For those that have read my previous blogpost, I Saw You in the Newspaper! , there has been some development in the case of RumahAmpik. To recap, in my previous post I mentioned that our Corporate Communications office was contacted by a man called Mr. William concerning including his children into our After School Project (ASP). 

Today, after a meeting with one of our board of directors, it was decided that RumahAmpik, at this time, is not a feasible community to foster due to the need for trained mentors with more experiences in dealing with problematic children as well as the fact that we have three other communities in our care.

I had suspected for a while that this would be the outcome of the case, but it does not change the sadness in my heart. Perhaps when the ASP is more established, and the mentors more well trained or rather if ASP has the ability to train the mentors that are already dedicated to the project, we can attempt such a thing with RumahAmpik. Till then, RumahAmpik has to stand and face this alone.

This situation, however, has taught me a little something in balancing the good of the company with the good of the community. CSR is never the priority of an organization, it is simply an obligation they have to cater to in order to continue their businesses as they please. In our case, the ASP has never been a priority in time or funding from our organization. I understand that in this specific case, ASP was truly unequipped to handle more problematic children under its care, and had to cede the opportunity to a later date, if at all.

I maintain, however, that in fulfilling an organizations corporate social responsibility the end goal of doing ‘just enough’ just isn’t enough. One day, people will look back and realize a company has done the bare minimum for their community and then they will demand compensation. One day, that organization they will be forced to realize that while they can’t help them all, they can certainly try.