Few weeks ago, I had lunch with my secondary school teacher and she raised the issue of fund-raising in her school and the difficulties in explaining to her students why the school carries out a series of fund-raising projects. The bottomline was her students felt that the school was literally sucking the money out of each of them and in their opinion forcing them to donate generously for a good cause.
The Singapore government has set in placed a series of financial aid programmes to help the financially stretched people. At the same time, there are also numerous organisations which also run their own financial support programmes. One such example would be the 'Straits Times Pocket Money Fund'. Acknowleging that these funds are limited and yet are expected to be stretched to its maximum use, there will thus be people who will not be at the receiving end of one of the many financial support programmes available to them.
In a recent 'Get Real' episode, Diana Ser interviewed a mother who had to support both her ailing parents-in-law, at the same time send money back to her own family in Malaysia and pay for her son's medical expenses for a series of major operations with a salary of just under $1500. According to her, she could not qualify for any financial support because of first, her salary and second, the family's combined income as a whole. The focus of that particular episode was to highlight on the inflexibility of such financial programmes where people had to meet requirements in order to receive help. The message I gathered was what more can be done, perhaps by the Government, to help these people who are seriously in need but fail on requirements. A twig in criterion will not arrest the problem in its entirety, rather, a different approach and perspective should be set in place when dealing with such issues.
For one, I do not believe in a one-size-fit-all programme where all accumulated problems can be combed under one single umbrella. I believe in something more practical and immediate and this is something that perhaps people who wish or are currently providing financial assistance can consider.
I believe the problem my teacher faced is the result of the lack of adequate explanation to her students on the 'loopholes' of the current available financial assistance programmes, even with the one her school provides. I also believe that if her students have such violent objections against the idea of a 'generous donation', then perhaps the school could also tone down and be more selective on its fund-raising programmes be it for school or for external organisations, to avoid the problem of apathy towards compassion.
Compassion is a virtue; it is something that comes from within a person. It cannot be taught through books and definitely not through Civics and Moral Education. It is an upbringing and something that each of us will need to experience for ourselves. The question at hand is rather how this experience is translated to us.
