I got to know this Uncle who works as a security guard. He was a Financial Literacy Programme (FLP) participant. FLP is a programme that Malaysian CARE developed to empower the poor towards financial freedom by educating them on things such as wants vs needs, basic budgeting, savings and credits/loans....When we started promoting the FLP programme, Uncle was keen but could not attend the regular group sessions that were held bi-weekly as he needed to be by his wife’s side who was bedridden due to a stroke that she had a few years back.

I had the opportunity to know Uncle and his wife through prior family visitations, way before we even introduced the FLP initiative. During these prior visits, despite how difficult their circumstances were, Uncle and his wife always welcomed me with joy and warmth.

When Uncle told me that he would not be coming for the classes, I decided to do a little extra and provide one-on-one lessons with him at his home. The reason is because of a very little thing that convicted me and that was the words from his wife who said in Tamil “Little girl, please come and visit us whenever you can”. That somehow convicted me in a special way, I can’t explain why, but it just did! Indeed, you can imagine that it was a bit ‘leceh’ to go out of my way but I am reminded of how patient God is with me. This experience has been a blessing to me at so many levels.

I am grateful for the platform that I have which allows me to journey with my clients at a personal level. Over the last 3 years, I can gladly say that Uncle is well versed in managing his finances and living within his means.