Nam

Myversa,

You misunderstood them la.
Let me explain why they are like that la.

First off, my sister-in-law mom is one of the higher rank volunteer and my mom do volunteer work regularly for 慈濟 too.

The reason why they have so many standing there ( they are short staff and keep calling my mom but my mom is sick) because compare to the china earthquake, even if they stand in public everyday.  The donation is very small in Canada..... It has been for quite a while, last time my mom was so upset because the donation .... only reach 400K across Canada... (or may be 40K, I can't remember exact number!)

Please don't misunderstand them... they never meant to force anyone to donate $$.  My mom asked me to help out last time for China Earthquake.  They have very straight rule. For example, I am not allow to smile and say hi to others unless people talk to us because 慈濟 does not want to give pure pressure to others.  They are not allow to shop after finish the volunteer work because they worry that others might think they got paid.


And all the uniform that they wear, they paid for it themselves as well.  All meals provided to the volunteers, are cooked/provided by other volunteer as well.

I think their original plan was set up booth for one week but keep extending. My sister-in-law mom came to Vancouver (from victoria) every week to do volunteer work.   Last weekend, she was called to help out at Crystal Mall for morning shift but they were really short staff, so she has to rushed to 1st Street T & T supermarket to volunteer as well....

Please respect their hardwork la... because I do really witness how kind they are....
But if you do not want to make donation, they won't give you dirty look or make you feel guilty.
Even my mom always tell me that the donation is very low this year, as her daughter, my mom did not mention one single word to ask me make donation...

Nam

To tell you the truth, for some reasons, people think TW doesn't need help this year.
My mom was helping out at T & T once, a caucasian who speak mandarin and point at one of the photo.  He said he recongized that hotel and he know that mostly business man stay in that hotel.  So he thinks that hotel have enough money and don't need to donate money.

They run into different situations like that and they have to be patience and explain each photo to people who are interested to know what had happened.


And the guy that you ran into that gave you attitude, probably not 慈濟 members.
I know they are really short staff this year, so the members might call their friends/family members to help out.

The real 慈濟 like my mom and my sister-in-law mom will never do that to people.
It is the rules that they have to follow straight.