Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Scary UNICEF Volunteer (Makati Underpass near RCBC Plaza)

Here's the email I sent UNICEF. I really hope they do something about this, since this is already considered harassment.

Fortunately the said volunteer was not there yesterday.

"I'm not sure who to report this to but your email addresses are the only ones I saw in the UNICEF site.

There is this UNICEF volunteer/agent that scared me last week. I don't really mind these volunteers being persuasive as long as they back off once I've said no (although most of them become persistent even though I've said no already, but that's another story).

This particular volunteer is male, of average height and with black glasses. I'm describing him since I don't have his name. I first encountered him a Thursday last week. He approached me and I said "No" for about 3 times before he backed off and said "Thank you". I found it annoying but I let it go.

The following day, I saw him again and as soon as he saw me (I was amidst maybe more than 10 people whom he just let pass without asking at least one of them to donate), I waved him off but he went a bit near me and said, "Tagong-tago Ma'am ah.", loosely translated as "You're really hiding Ma'am.". This has made me feel threatened and to be honest I am a bit scared of going through the underpass again later but I have no choice as it's the only way I can get to the other side of Ayala since it's the one nearest my office (Ayala Life FGU).

Kindly have someone look into this, please. Thank you."




*** Update

UNICEF replied. See below.

"Thank you for taking time to write to us.
We apologize for anything you found unsettling about the behavior of our fundraiser. It’s not the type of behavior that UNICEF condones, and we want to take immediate action to prevent the representative from making the same mistakes.

Per your account, the fundraiser concerned was on duty on Thursday and Friday afternoon, March 14 & 15. May we verify if the incident occurred in the Paseo de Roxas underpass or the RCBC underpass?

Your valuable feedback will certainly help us improve our fundraising for children. As you may know, UNICEF is not funded by the UN and relies solely on voluntary contributions. Thus, fundraising is an important enabler for us to carry out our program work in Health & Nutrition, Education, Water, Hygiene and Sanitation or WASH, Emergencies and Child Protection.

APPCO Group Asia is the official fundraising partner of UNICEF in the East Asia Pacific Region. In the Philippines, UNICEF works with its subsidiary, APPCO Philippines, for the Individual Fundraising/ Face-to-Face Campaign. APPCO manages the recruitment of fundraisers, and we will continue improving our joint efforts to work only with this those who can genuinely represent UNICEF’s ideals, and effectively deliver results for children.

Once more, our sincerest apologies. We look forward to hearing from you."


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