Fellow bloggers, unite. Today, October 17 is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. This year’s theme is: “Working Together Out of Poverty”.

The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is celebrated every year on October 17 throughout the world. It was officially recognized by the United Nations in 1992, but the first commemoration of the event took place in Paris, France, in 1987 when 100,000 people gathered on the Human Rights and Liberties Plaza at the Trocadéro to honour victims of poverty, hunger, violence and fear.

The figures are staggering. One in five people in the world live on less than a dollar a day. Imagine how skewed and imbalanced the so-called “distribution” of the world’s wealth and resources has remained over the years.

In the Philippines, poverty has become so common that sweet welcoming smiles of children who approach you selling their sampaguitas seem to veil tracks of tears etched on their faces. While they utter that most grateful “Salamat po.” (Thank you.), they distract themselves from their reality and for a few seconds, look at that lone coin trying to convince themselves that it does exist. Sometimes, they  grasp that coin so tight as if their entire lives depended on it — and painfully, it did. But that momentary distraction from reality, to them, is enough to numb their sore, bare feet tired from walking all day and all night, fending for themselves like workmen, so young and fragile yet hardened to the core by the cruel streets of the city — they took it upon themselves to do something, anything — to die trying  rather than die waiting. These are kids. These are their challenges — challenges that should have been and remains to be OURS.

In this country, according to The Second Quarter 2009 Social Weather Survey on self-rated poverty released on August 4 and  fielded over June 19-22, 2009 — 50% (an estimated 9.3 million) families consider themselves as Poor, 27% put themselves on the Borderline, and only 22% consider themselves as Not Poor. In this same survey, 39% of Filipino families (an estimated 7.2 million) consider themselves as Food-Poor, 33% put themselves on the Food-Borderline, and only 28% consider themselves as Not Food-Poor.

In terms of hunger, although the Third Quarter 2009 Social Weather Survey, fielded over September 18-21, 2009, reports that the proportion of families experiencing involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months have been declining to 17.5%, or an estimated 3.2 million families, from 20.3% (estimated 3.7 million families) in the previous quarter, much work remains to be done to sustain this decline. The survey adds that:

Hunger has consistently been in double-digits for over five years, since June 2004. The latest Hunger figure is 5 points above the 11-year average of 12.9%.

The measure of Hunger refers to involuntary suffering because the respondents answer a survey question that specifies hunger due to lack of anything to eat.

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What has politics got to do with it?

Incidentally, today is also the day to Stand Up Against Corruption and Poverty. It is undeniable that corruption and poverty are inextricably linked to each other because corruption acts as stumbling block towards the Millennium Development Goals which includes the eradication of poverty in 2010 .

Being neck-deep in foreign debt, borne out of ostentatious spending of previous governments up to the present, somehow, we have come to accept that there is nothing else we can do but live with it.

Attributing the Filipino’s resilience to the many years of being poor, compounded by frequent disasters — the natural and the political. Many Filipinos just keep on adapting, continuing to survive however hard or hopeless.

I guess, not many of them know that their being impoverished is not entirely traceable to fate. I suppose they don’t know that by living in utter poverty, their basic human rights are continuously violated, generations before them and generations after them.

While those who have ransacked our coffers and are endlessly thieving on every piece of resource they get their hands on live affluent lives, people die by the hundreds, if not thousands because of despicable and horrible poverty.

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This has got to stop.

For so long a time, the poor has been made to believe that it is fate that dictated their plight, that it is our country’s being typhoon-stricken or our geography that hampers delivery of basic services. For so very long, many generations before us, we were made to believe that it is our being in debt to the World Bank and other lending institutions that put us here — this unending cycle of debt-servicing, the government claims, is what eats up most of our national budget. We were made to believe that THERE IS NOTHING THAT WE CAN DO ABOUT POVERTY or that if there were solutions, they were remotely possible to begin with.

I refuse to be brainwashed. I refuse to be swindled. I refuse to just take it as it is.

Yes, we are in debt. Yes, being so close to the equator, being typhoon-stricken, being so far apart from us each other — 7,107 islands — all these may be hindrances. But these reasons should not content us. Every problem has a solution — we just have to find it out, have the conviction and the will to do whatever is necessary to get ourselves out of this rut.

Of course, this is no small task. And this is not a task best left to the government alone. But we can all take small steady steps leading to this goal.

What can you do to help in our struggle for the eradication of poverty? Here are some of the little ways:

1) Pay your taxes correctly and promptly. Do not argue. You are required by law anyway. Where else will the government get funds?

2) Contribute to your local church (monetarily or through your efforts). Most churches have community services like school-feeding or similar activities.

3) Be vigilant. Report and expose corruption and other similar anomalies in the government, report it while it is still brewing, doing so will discourage continuing corrupt practices.

4) Always ask for receipts. If you pay your taxes correctly and promptly, it is imperative that you demand the same from businesses who earn far more than you.

5) Prevent yourself from being part of the statistics. These days, people get bankrupt overnight. Manage your resources wisely, do not overspend. If you have more, then you can share more.

6) If you are a businessman, please consider lowering your profit margins for the benefit of the poor — most specially if you sell basic commodities.

7) If you have the resources, why not consider putting up small businesses like small sari-sari stores and consider employing one or two people who are family breadwinners.

8) If possible, try to adapt one kid in terms of financing public school education. Education remains as one of the best if not the  great equalizer —  a poor man’s true salvation. Not only will it give a person the credentials to get a decent job, it will also teach them the value of being goal-oriented. Also, being helped by somebody boosts your morale, your self-worth, realizing that if other people cares about you and believes in you, why then must you lose hope and doubt yourself?

There are so  many other ways you can help eradicate poverty. You can even improvise as you go along. (Suggestions are welcome, you can leave them here in the comments section.)

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In closing, let me just say:

You don’t have to save the entire world. One person. One act. One conviction. One goal. All it takes is ONE. Over time, every little thing we do will add up to something. Eradication of poverty need not sound like “big words” left for the government or the UN to mind. We must learn to take care of each other, one person at a time. And if you can do more than one, imagine how close we can be to this dream.

Imagine a kid coming up to you with a sampaguita, not asking for money but thanking you for finally taking up the challenge that has always been ours to take in the first place.