Balance

I am having to find a balance between helping and not being seen as a source of money and gifts. Example…
I was playing with the children in my neighborhood for nearly two hours. At the end, one little girl cut open her elbow. I have medical materials, but I am only supposed to use them for myself, because if I give it out or use it for others, I will be seen as a source for all those materials, for free. So the most I could do for this girl was to wash the blood off with water. The French volunteers who live in my compound, of course, come and help, and are able to clean it off with antimicrobials and put Neosporin and bandaid on. I wanted to be able to do that, but knew if I did, I would have a never-ending line for free care. And sure enough, two minutes later, a young boy comes up to me with his cut up ankle. It’s so frustrating to not be able to do as much as you want to. And I can’t even really tell them – “Hey, you need to clean this with alcohol and antibiotic ointment and bandage it” – because no one has any of that stuff. You’d find it at the pharmacy, but my local clinic doesn’t have a functional pharmacy! And not one has money – I told the little girl she should go to the disponsaire because she has other similar wounds that look like they’ve been infected and the wounds need to be reopened and cleaned. But how do you tell people they need to spend money they don’t have on care that isn’t essential?