Saturday, November 19, 2011

Pasko Para Sa Mga Paslit


Share a little of your blessings...so that others would feel blessed also.

‎Community  work is primarily aimed at helping people within a local community to identify social needs, to consider the most effective ways of meeting these and to set about doing so, in so far as their available resources permit.


Community work was taken to include:
helping local people to decide, plan and take action to meet their own needs with the help of available outside resources;helping local services to become more effective, usable and accessible to those whose needs they are trying to meet;

taking account of the interrelation between different services in planning for people;

forecasting necessary adaptions to meet new social needs in constantly changing circumstances.

We could help the community grow through livelihood programs—examples of which could be:

Solid waste management system where biodegradable wastes are recycled as earthworm casts and sold as fertilizers. Non-biodegradable wastes, such as plastics and bottles, are made into bags, placemats and home furnishings. The tapping of available raw or excess materials, making use of the natural products available in the community and converting them into useful products. Water lilies that clogged our rivers, previously used tarpaulins,  and other sources can also be converted into handicrafts.

“We can create champions in the community when you work with them”

Normally short-term projects eventually lead to unproductive waste of government resources, and becomes as mere campaign tools or opportunities for many politicians who just want to be seen in public doing some community work....and then displaying their faces on billboards and posters,  and pictures of the project would soon be seen all over their Facebook pages.

Most of the time, the cost of preparing for these materials plus the operational or logistic expenses are more expensive if not equal to the cost of the community project. The time of preparation even takes longer than the actual community service.

Organizing occasional free dental and medical health services, basketball/badminton/volleyball and even bingo tournaments, community Christmas/Halloween/Valentines and whatever parties, etc are helpful and are appreciated, but they are just short term masking of realities (poverty, overpopulation, unemployment, etc), and does not really solve the actual needs of the community. After all these events, the people would have to go back to their normal lives, and wait for next year's occurrence?

Instead of wasting government funds for short-term objectives, why don't we just establish a sustainable and lasting source or solution of productivity and relief for our people.

Imagine this:

An empowered community where people would not have to wait for the annual barangay or city programs because they are already well-equipped to pay for their own medical and dental needs, initiates their own community tournaments, games and contests, organizes creative livelihood projects using their own capital, and holds their own parties via community contributions within their own neighborhood.

Ideal community based projects should be long-running, applicable to many, and well-sustained so as not to turn it into a  "ningas-kugon" or seasonal project.

The local government may look admirable to want to address our needs with these short-term projects, but they should not neglect addressing also our "real" needs.

Set aside our political agendas, and truly serve the people rather ourselves.

Final Note/Huling Hirit:

Politics dim our senses because we see only our future as leaders in power over our constituents. We fail to hear what they are shouting because our minds are clouded by the promise of wealth and fame. We therefore create not to solve but only to masquerade.

"The only cure for materialism is the cleansing of the six senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind). If the senses are clogged, one's perception is stifled. The more it is stifled, the more contaminated the senses become. This creates disorder in the world, and that is the greatest evil of all. Polish the heart, free the six senses and let them function without obstruction, and your entire body and soul will glow."

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