One of the most exciting and fun parts of living here in the Philippines has been meeting new people. I’ve met people not just in academics, and politics, but also within the social advocacy network.
These are passionate people who dedicate their time and commitment in creating a just and healthy environment for everyone, especially those who are socially disenfranchised. I’m very pleased to have met some of them because it gives me more hope and inspiration to see people caring for each other.
My previous job as a social worker gave me a vivid eye-opener, seeing first hand how the world of poverty led some people to take the desperate measure of committing a crime for survival. Sad, but true.
It is heart-breaking to see an 80-year-old woman selling illegally prescription pills from her home in order to have extra income to pay for the high maintenance medication needed for her chronic illnesses.
How can you even judge a person in such dire need? Judging the victims is not even remotely the answer to solve such situations. We are part of the human community, and we cannot just stand idly and pretend that somehow social problems are something we prefer not to get involved in, or that poverty is only a problem for the poor and it does not affect us.
Let me be blunt, it is simply idiotic to think that social problems such as poverty only affect the handful but not us. It is misguided and inhuman to think that we can cruise through life without any regard or participation to help alleviate the living conditions of the poor.
Not to sound righteous, but it is a Christian moral obligation to do charity work for the poor.
Recently, I met an American woman named Diane Pool. Along with her late husband Bill, she’s dedicated her life to helping educate children and provide job training for their community in Siaton. Here’s the website that will speak for itself about the work that Diane and her husband dedicated their lives to in Siaton: http://www.1candleschoolhouse.blogspot.com/
Diane’s learning center is one of the many non-profit organizations that were created here in Negros Oriental to serve the poor, the abused, the uneducated, and those others that are discriminated against in our society.
For the most part, the majority of these non-profit/NGOs are by in-large funded privately. Lucky are those who get big donations of money and equipment to help operate their services, but some barely get enough. Volunteers are always necessary and needed since funding to pay for staff salaries is scarce.
At the end of the day, what is at stake here are the participants lives; whether they will be allowed to experience choices and opportunities for work.
My hope is for the public to get involved and be part of the many good causes that are personally meaningful.
I tried to live and breathe in the hopeful idea that despite the disproportionate advantages in our society, we as civilized human beings can make an effort to find the solutions to our many social problems without being deterred into hopelessness.
And that despite the many challenges that we face along the path to become better people, we will not lose our sheer determination and persistence to continue the fight against all kinds of discrimination, abuse, and inequality.
So I challenge all of us to get involved and be counted.
