Gawad Kalinga Community: Solving Poverty In The Philippines
- Date: 2009-08-12 - Word Count: 515
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Gawad Kalinga is a massive organization that is gaining lots of momentum right now. This group's vision started as simply providing decent and sustainable housing communities for the homeless. And it is succeeding at this vision which surprises a lot of people. However, its vision right now is even more bombastic. Its goal now is to eradicate poverty itself.
Is there anyway to actually solve the problem of poverty? It certainly seems bleak for a lot of people. It seems that there is really nothing that can be done about this problem. But the truth is that there are enough resources in our world right now to feed everyone in the world. In this world, there are many people who have tons of money, while there are people who have none at all. There are people who have no proper homes; they live in rat infested shanties and have to literally scrape trashcans for food. Then in opposition to this, there are people who own billions and billions. They own mansions and yachts and each day they spend enough money to feed a hundred people in poorer countries. If the wealth was simply more evenly distributed then poverty would not exist. You will not of course expect the rich to simply give up their stature of wealth and give their property for charity. But the capitalist system that is in place permits this kind of inequality to be perpetuated.
But solving the problem is a lot more complicated than that. Think of how a poor person can rise out of his or her situation. The old American platitudes that that say anyone can rise up from his or her situation with honest hard work no longer holds water. There are just some situations where a person can't rise up from. A perfect example of this situation is exemplified in the show the Wire. How can the poor, with no education and with street values lift themselves up from their situation? They have no means. If there ever happens to be poor people who have gotten rich, would these people do something to eradicate this system that allows people to horde so much wealth while those around them suffer? How much money will they really give back to social reform? The rich will want to remain rich and they have all the power to keep things the way they have always been. The system keeps itself in place. The poor do not have many people to defend them or help them.
Gawad Kalinga shows that it is possible to at least put a dent to this system. Unlike first world countries where the government gives funds to helping out the homeless, third world countries such as the Philippines only allocates a meager amount to feeding programs, education, and housing projects. The GK program, through the contribution of people who have enough and care, are able to at least provide clean and stable housing for the homeless. The Gawad Kalinga mantra of "Less for Sell, More for Others, Enough for All" is truly the key to the problem of poverty.
Is there anyway to actually solve the problem of poverty? It certainly seems bleak for a lot of people. It seems that there is really nothing that can be done about this problem. But the truth is that there are enough resources in our world right now to feed everyone in the world. In this world, there are many people who have tons of money, while there are people who have none at all. There are people who have no proper homes; they live in rat infested shanties and have to literally scrape trashcans for food. Then in opposition to this, there are people who own billions and billions. They own mansions and yachts and each day they spend enough money to feed a hundred people in poorer countries. If the wealth was simply more evenly distributed then poverty would not exist. You will not of course expect the rich to simply give up their stature of wealth and give their property for charity. But the capitalist system that is in place permits this kind of inequality to be perpetuated.
But solving the problem is a lot more complicated than that. Think of how a poor person can rise out of his or her situation. The old American platitudes that that say anyone can rise up from his or her situation with honest hard work no longer holds water. There are just some situations where a person can't rise up from. A perfect example of this situation is exemplified in the show the Wire. How can the poor, with no education and with street values lift themselves up from their situation? They have no means. If there ever happens to be poor people who have gotten rich, would these people do something to eradicate this system that allows people to horde so much wealth while those around them suffer? How much money will they really give back to social reform? The rich will want to remain rich and they have all the power to keep things the way they have always been. The system keeps itself in place. The poor do not have many people to defend them or help them.
Gawad Kalinga shows that it is possible to at least put a dent to this system. Unlike first world countries where the government gives funds to helping out the homeless, third world countries such as the Philippines only allocates a meager amount to feeding programs, education, and housing projects. The GK program, through the contribution of people who have enough and care, are able to at least provide clean and stable housing for the homeless. The Gawad Kalinga mantra of "Less for Sell, More for Others, Enough for All" is truly the key to the problem of poverty.
A computer graduate and loves to travel. Reading current news in the internet is one of his past times. Taking pictures of the things around him fully satisfies him. He loves to play badminton and his favorite pets are cats and walk with them in the park with some dogs.To give you more idea, you may want to visit the Gawad Kalinga Community website. Your Article Search Directory : Find in Articles
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