Assisting my NGO in proposal writing as agreed upon during my induction at the office is most welcome as long as it will not affect my major tasks and responsibilities as Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor. Three weeks have passed and I have reviewed already the guidelines and even tried to browse on-line since applications will be submitted through the net. I have given my opinion regarding its preparation, primarily saying that I can write proposal on my own but my job is not supposed to be this way but rather through sharing skills; besides, a proposal should be based on the context of Zambia and therefore, the locals have more knowledge on how to go about it. I also said that several heads are better than one, so it is important that people sit together and discuss how to proceed with it.
My idea regarding the preparation was accepted and so, schedules were set on its preparation. Saturday and Sunday were both cancelled due to power service interruptions so it was reset to Monday, but then other things came up so the people in-charge to discuss the proposal became busy, whatever it was I would say, was not in the priority list of the tasks at hand. The day ended doing nothing about it. Tuesday came; the people in charge to help in proposal preparation were busy as usual with things which are not priority. What I find really difficult to understand is for people to determine which tasks are urgent and which should be the priority. Whenever somebody would come with any agenda, it will be attended to. And then, another visitor would arrive for whatever reason, and then attention will be deviated to that person until time has gone without accomplishing the tasks at hand for the day. It’s frustrating, sickening and tiring and being a volunteer, if you get affected, you will be the loser. Entertaining the feeling of frustration from work mixed with personal emotions would really drive me mad. Therefore, to keep myself composed, I make conscious effort to process within myself such situations. I just hope that in my two -year stay in this organization, I would be able to influence and develop in them the sense of urgency and priority.
1 comment:
we all find ourselves in the similar situation and i just want to share that no matter how we try to help them out they also have to help themselves and if we are only the one to determine what are their needs and they don't really look at it as needs (as how we normally view it) then as we always say....we can only do so much and it's up to them to maximize our presence and our contribution to their organization. Good luck anyway. don't take it too hard on yourself. I find that it is a cycle (from the first volunteer to now) so we can't really do anything about it, i guess. Take care.
Post a Comment