GAWAD KALINGA PARTNERS
Towards Slum-Free and Squatter-Free Communities
The GK Shelter Congress was a historical and blessed event and was successful
in achieving its goal of bringing together important partners in Shelter! Held at
the World Trade Center on June 20,2003, attendees were Dr. Teck Ghee-Lim,
Regional Adviser on Poverty Reduction of the United Nations, Secretary Obet
Pagdanganan of the Department of Agriculture, Chairman Mike Defensor of the
Housing & Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and heads of the various
shelter agencies. Commissioner Emmanuel Dalman of the Commission on Audit (COA) ,
and mayors representing more than 50 municipalities and cities of the country.
They were joined by their counterparts -- the GK caretaker teams from Couples for
Christ! Not one event in history was able to bring together under one roof such
audience, and indeed, it was an event that promised much hope for the future of
our country. Shelter is the flagship component of Gawad Kalinga, and it is the
hope of GK to give every poor family a decent home. The participation of each
individual in that room further enkindles the
dream that the problem of poverty CAN be solved. As Antonio Meloto, Executive
Director of Gawad Kalinga shared, "Failure of government is failure of
society-and we are part of society." Gawad Kalinga is an active response to the
problem of poverty that is keeping the Philippines in the Third World. He further
enthuses, "Before, we were part of the problem. Now, we are part of the
solution."
GK is about us and our future. And this is slowly being realized by the
blossoming of many partnerships between GK and local governments. One example is
Butuan City Mayor Plaza. She shares, "We have a problem of relocating 6,413
families from Agusan River, and the City Housing Development Office could not
solve the problem. I was not convinced of Gawad Kalinga until we visited GK
Tangub, Iligan and Cagayan De Oro. Now I can say that there is hope, and nothing
is impossible for addressing poverty. Our partnership (with GK) is not only to
solve the housing problem but to bring dignity to the Butuan poor."
GK, now a national multi-sectoral effort, is also being recognized by the United
Nations as a model for Poverty Reduction in other Third World countries. As Dr.
Teck Ghee Lim affirms, "The answer lies in the intangibles to make development
work -- good governance, empowerment of the poor, sacrifice and hard work,
commitment and stamina, and focus and targeted idealism that is found in Gawad
Kalinga. The importance of GK is found in shelter as an entry point to
transformation, the poor as social capital, and the rich & comfortable as
partners and facilitators." He later on would caution, that "it is important to
realize that we are making a commitment."
INTERNATIONAL CONNECTION
We were visited by Dr. Kim Hak-Su, Undersecretary General of the UN and Executive Secretary of UN ESCAP (Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific - 1 of the 5 regional commissions of the UN, and the biggest.) Together with 4 other Undersecretaries, he is the number 2 man in the UN under Kofi Annan. A Korean Catholic, he attended the Christian Life Program (invited by Jun Uriarte, his special assistant). He met with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to discuss various ways by which UNESCAP could collaborate with the Philippines in the area of poverty reduction. He also met 3 VP's of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to seek the bank's support for this important undertaking. He called Gawad Kalinga a remarkable achievement and committed to help expand our work. He is looking at Gawad Kalinga to become a UN model for its global work for poverty reduction. His special representative, Lim Teck Ghee, spent a few weeks late last year in the Philippines to investigate Gawad Kalinga. He was very impressed and in his official report said:
Gawad Kalinga is a very good example of poverty alleviation with much potential for improving the lives of the poor, a remarkable achievement that should be rapidly upscaled, which has the potential to emerge as one of the better, if not the best practices in the area of poverty alleviation and housing for the poor.
In his breakfast forum speech, Dr. Kim Hak-Su highlighted that poverty is the region's greatest challenge. 67% of the world's poor are in Asia and Pacific. 21% of the region's population of 3.8 billion people live on less than $1 per day! Nearly 570 million people do not have access to safe water and over 1.8 billion lack adequate sanitation. Each year, 1 million children die of water-borne diseases. Poverty is not only lack of income and access to basic services. It is also about failure to respond to the voice of the poor. He congratulated the Gawad Kalinga program for building 2'000 houses in 157 Gawad Kalinga sites nationwide and for providing basic needs such as health, education and livelihood - making a difference in the lives of many poor communities. He called Gawad Kalinga a remarkable achievement that used a combination of empowerment approach together with the building up of assets and capabilities of the poor to alleviate poverty. The poor are seen as not beneficiaries, but as people with the potential to change their lives for the better if provided with the opportunity, at the same time stressing the practice of self-reliance among those who are more fortunate. He also extolled the importance of sacrifice and sharing as a means of building up the community and the nation.