Fr. Jorge Anzorena, SJ
SELAVIP
NEWSLETTER APRIL 2019
Journal of Low-Income Housing in Asia and the World
“Jockin left us with a tremendous vacuum. There is no other Jockin. But his spirituality and conviction has multiplied in so many leaders. The 38 years in his company has introduced me to a new world of imagination and resolution for improving the urban poor” Jorge Anzorena
Published with the generous asistance of the
JESUIT EAST ASIAN ASSISTANCE by PAGTAMBAYAYONG FOUNDATION, Inc. 102 P. del Rosario Ext. Cebu City 6000 Philippines Fax. : [+63-32] 253 – 7974 Tel. : [+63-32] 418 - 2168 Email : [email protected]
This publication is not covered by copyright and may bequoted or recopied in part or in full with or without acknowledgement or notice to its authors and publishers although such would be highly appreciated.
Jockin Arputham (15 August 1947 –October 13, 2019 He worked for more than 40 years to help build people’s organizations in the in slums of India and in many parts of the world. He was the president of the National Slum Dweller Federation which he founded in the 70s and of the Slum Dwellers International. His work has won him in 2000 the Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding. And in 2014, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the Swedish minister for public administration and housing, Stefan Attefall, and supported by ministers from Norway and South Africa.
Jockin’s lasting message to all of us: “How can you reduce urban poverty if you do not listen and work with the urban poor?” “There is a war between the urban rich and the urban poor. And I’m trying to make peace between them.”
Jockin’s lasting legacy to all of us: Only a couple of decades ago, slum and pavement dwellers could be evicted summarily because they were seen as squatters. Now, owing in large part to his and many others’ efforts, the policy of India and most of the world, now recognizes slum residents as valid inhabitants of the city, entitled to compensation and alternative housing.
There is a very interesting article https://www.theguardian.com/.../jockin-arputham-mumbai-slum-dweller-nob el-peace-...
Table of Contents
APRIL 2019
NETWORK Architects in the Margins is a Book Published by TAO Pilipinas 1 THEMES 6 Asians Honored with Ramon Magsaysay Awards 2018 06 Communities in Nepal and Cambodia Look at Food Security 13 The 10 Great Social Entrepreneurs of All Time 15
ARGENTINA Social Argentinian Leaders Support Senegalese Street Vendors, imprisoned Posted on Sep 21, 2018 by Eds. 21
CHINA Hong Kong The Beginning of Community Organizing in Hong Kong 23 INDIA Christmas Letter 2018 from Kolkata By Brother Yesudas 27 INDIA Ladakh Ladakh Education and Ice Stupas 29 PAKISTAN: A voice from slums By Dr Noman Ahmed 43 City & Plans 46 Street Markets the World Over Compiled by Bushra Sarwar with Arif Hasan 49 The Orangi Pilot Project (TTRC) 56 PHILIPPINES: Bakukang By Raymund Fernandez 69 Paradise By Raymund Fernandez 71 Securing Human Rights through Organizing People for Power by Bimbo Fernandez 73 SOUTH AFRICA: Lindiwe Sisulu about Jockin Arputham 76 Youth mobilization in Orangi Farm, Johannesburg 79 THAILAND Housing for the Homeless 82 Housing for the Poorest (Baan Paw Pieng) 86 Contact Number & Addresses
Fr. Josse van der Rest, SJ Fr. Jorge Anzorena, SJ 3-5-13 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Henri Thijssen Tokyo Managing Director 153-0041 Japan Selavip International SA-FS Tel: 03-3465-0831 Avenue de Kaaninem 33, 1950 Fax 033465-8630 Brussels Belgium [email protected] +32 475 550075 [email protected] [email protected]
The following issues of the newsletter is available for download: http://bit.ly/SELAVIP2019APR http://bit.ly/SELAVIP2018OCT http://bit.ly/SELAVIP2018APR http://bit.ly/SELAVIP2017OCT http://bit.ly/SELAVIP2017APR http://bit.ly/SELAVIP2016OCT http://bit.ly/SELAVIP2016APR
Digital copies of the previous issues are also available upon request either via mailed USB or through downloading as soon as we can find a millennial who will make this possible. 1978-2001: without pictures 2002-mid 2018: with pictures Fr. Anzorena’s Selavip Newsletter is issued twice a year, every year since 1978, without fail. For further information: [email protected] NETWORK E.J. Anzorena, S.J. April 2019
Architects in the Margins
(A book published by TAO Pilipinas. It describes the journey of TAO-Pilipinas as a women-passion to serve lead NGO)
TAO-Pilipinas is a women-led technical service non-government organization (NGO) that works directly with urban and rural poor communities in the Philippines. It strives for inclusive, people-centered, and and Publications component covers the sustainable human settlements organization’s various studies and development. It works for equitable distribution of and access to resources documentation activities, as well as the maintenance of its resource center. using participatory planning, The Education and Training with the development, and management. Young Professionals Program focuses on TAO-Pilipinas aims to help enhance the technical knowledge and skills of housing the provision of capability-building workshops and training, while the stakeholders. To achieve these goals, it Organization, Networking and Advocacy runs four major programs: Human Program is all about network and Settlements and Environment, Research organizational development. and Publications, Education and Training with the Young Professionals (YP), and TAO-Pilipinas works closely with Organization, Networking and Advocacy. partner organizations in implementing its
programs. It collaborates with them in Human Settlements and Environment is TAO-Pilipinas’ core undertaking the various technical processes involved in on-site and off-site program. It provides direct technical assistance to community-based upgrading, development of informal settlements affected by various organizations and NGOs. The Research government projects, capability-building
Selavip Newsletter 1 April 2019 for disaster risk management, solid adaptation (CCA) and participatory waste management, and the production geographic information system (GIS), of micro-concrete roof tiles as and in implementing post-disaster alternative building material. It also reconstruction project. engages with its partners in facilitating YP workshops, conducting research For further information: collaborations on climate change [email protected]
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Selavip Newsletter 3 April 2019
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Selavip Newsletter 5 April 2019 THEMES E.J. Anzorena, S.J. April 2019
6 Asians Honored with Ramon Magsaysay Awards 2018
The prestigious award established in better. 1957, is regarded as Asia's version of the Nobel Prize. It is given annually to Two Indians, a Cambodian, a Filipino, perpetuate former Philippine President a Vietnamese and an East Timorese, Ramon Magsaysay's exampleof integrity known for their contribution to society, in governance, courageous service to the were honored on Friday with the 2018 people, and pragmatic idealism within a Ramon Magsaysay Awards. democratic society. Regardless of race, The six Asians were honored at a nationality, creed or gender, the award formal ceremony at the Cultural Center honors Asians who address issues of of the Philippines in Manila. They were human development in the continent each given a certificate, a medallion with courage and creativity, and in doing bearing the likeness of the late Filipino so have made contributions which have President, and a cash prize. transformed their societies for the
Selavip Newsletter 6 April 2019
Youk Chhang of Cambodia Bharat Vatwani of India
Youk Chhang, a Cambodian Bharat Vatwani is an Indian genocide survivor has been recognized psychiatrist who has rescued thousands for documenting the Khmer Rouge of mentally ill people in the streets. An atrocities to attain justice for victims, estimated 400,000 homeless people in preserve the country's history and India struggle with mental achieve collective healing. According to illness. Vatwani started a mission in the 57-year old Chhang, remembering 1988 that by now has rescued, treated the mistakes of the past is the “pathway and reintegrated into their families more to justice”. than 7,000 of them. Vatwani's "healing compassion" affirmed "the human The massive scope of his group’s dignity of even the most ostracized in work included collecting more than a our midst," the award foundation said. million documents, producing digital maps of more than 23,000 mass graves Sonam Wangchuk of India and excavating remains for forensic examination. The 57-year old Cambodian Sonam Wangchuk, from the Indian is currently involved in a project to state of Jammu and Kashmir, was lauded develop a museum, archives and library for fighting discrimination against and a graduate program on crimes minorities and founding a movement in against humanity. 1988 that pursued educational reforms
Selavip Newsletter 7 April 2019 and helped tutor poor village students so they could pass exams.
In cooperation with the local administration he brought about reforms that focus on "creative, child-friendly, and activity-based" education in his state. Maria de Lourdes Martins Cruz of East Vo Thi Hoang, who contracted polio Timor when she was 2 years old, founded a non-profit group in 2005, the Disability Maria de Lourdes Martins Cruz was Research and Capacity Development recognized for leading efforts to help Center, that has helped about 15,000 poor East Timorese get access to health people with disabilities get jobs through care, education, farming and livelihood skills training. Her showcase project in the midst of the nation's tumultuous involved a motorcycle taxi service transition to independence in 2001. designed for the disabled. Her organization, Instituto Seculare Maun Alin Iha Kristu uplifts vulnerable Howard Dee of the Philippines members of society through self-help programs. Filipino businessman Howard Dee was recognized for his "quietly heroic acts of service to the Filipino people," and for pursuing social justice, peace, and progress for the poor. He also helped to establish development organizations Philippine Business for Social Progress and Assisi Development Foundation. He served as a government negotiator in peace talks with communist rebels in the 1990s. Vo Thi Hoang Yen of Vietnam
Selavip Newsletter 8 April 2019 For further information: Magsaysay Foundation rmaf @rmaf.org
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Selavip Newsletter 10 April 2019
Selavip Newsletter 11 April 2019
Selavip Newsletter 12 April 2019 THEMES E.J. Anzorena, S.J. April 2019
Communities in Nepal and Cambodia Look at Food Security
In ACHR's people-driven poverty line in the United Nation's Declaration of study conducted a few years ago, it was Human Rights. Ending Hunger is second striking to note that food was important in the list of 17 Sustainable Development in defining poverty. Poverty was defined Goals. Food security is now a serious by the quality, quantity, affordability and global development topic, but it is mostly availability of what people eat. Many of very high-level professionals and the community groups observed that the academics who study it, explain it and poorer a family is, the more of their recommend actions. income will likely be spent on nourishing themselves. Some of the poorest families But what about poor people spend more than half their earnings on themselves? How do they experience food but nourishment often remain and define food security? And how do inadequate. they understand the local food supply and distribution systems which allow In the big words of the global them to eat well, or which prevent them development world, those poor from doing so? How do they manage to households are experiencing food nourish themselves and what ideas do insecurity. And they are not alone. they have for eating better? These Today some 800 million people in the questions have been part of another world (one out of every eight humans) community-driven study that ACHR has are not getting enough to eat, despite the been conducting over the past year, in fact that there is more than enough food two countries, in collaboration with IIED, being produced in the world to feed and with the support from the Thai everyone. community networks.
The reasons for this growing In Nepal, the study has been undernourishment are complicated, and facilitated by Lumanti, the Community have to do with how food is produced, Women's Forum and the Mahila Ekta distributed, made accessible and Samaj Women's Federation. In consumed. The Right to Food is enshrined Cambodia, the Community Development
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Foundation (CDF) and the national providing food to their families. Before network of community savings groups the study ends in 2019, the communities conduct the study. Our key project that have been taking part in the study partner at IIED in the food study has been will have the opportunity to use some Cecilia Tacoli. small "action research" grants from the project to develop some community Like the earlier studies on Poverty projects to improve their access to good Lines and Community Finance, the main food: community gardens, buyers’ coops, researchers in this new study have been planting producing trees, etc. community people themselves, mostly women, and the chief research method A final regional meeting on the food has been discussions of various sizes. study will be organized in Bangkok on The idea has been to bring the voices and January 23, 2019, and a newsletter-style understanding of the urban poor (the real report on the food study will be prepared experts on how to feed their families with and distributed after that. very little money) into the larger discussion about food security, and give For further information: them an opportunity to analyze in detail Tom Kerr their own strategies and systems for [email protected]
Selavip Newsletter 14 April 2019
THEMES E.J.Anzorena, S.J. April 2019
The 10 Greatest Social Entrepreneurs of All Time
While it is admirable to build a successful founder and current chair of Ashoka: business of any kind, some Innovators for the Public, an organization entrepreneurs do more than just make a that is dedicated to finding and helping profit with the fruits of their labor. Some social entrepreneurs around the world. actually help others, bringing resources, Drayton spreads out his social opportunities, training, and other assets entrepreneurship expertise in other to those who need them most. These organizations as well, working as a social entrepreneurs use their know-how chairman at Community Greens, Youth and business savvy to make the world a Venture, and Get America Working! in better place, combining a traditional addition to his duties at Ashoka. As of business model with a pressing social 2010, Ashoka Foundation has sponsored mission in ways that have been helping 2,145 fellows in 73 countries, some of to make big changes in places around the which have gone on to develop leading world for decades. Here, we highlight social businesses that have made a huge just a few of the standout social impact on communities around the entrepreneurs who're showing that world. successful businesses don't have to just watch the bottom line and can truly be socially and environmentally conscious.
BILL Drayton
Bill Drayton isn't just a great example of a social entrepreneur, he actually helped to define and promote the term itself. Drayton is the
Selavip Newsletter 15 April 2019
MUHAMMAD YUNUS
Bring up social entrepreneurs and one of the first names you're likely to encounter is that of Muhammad Yunus. Yunus has quite literally written the book on social entrepreneurship, sharing his expertise in BLAKE MYCOSKIE microfinance and social capitalism through a number of books. Yunus is the TOMS founder Mycoskie makes this founder of the Grameen Bank, an list because, unlike many of these other institution that provides microcredit ventures, almost everyone with an loans to those in need to help them awareness of pop culture has heard of develop financial self-sufficiency. this social brand. Its popularity has Founded in 1983, the bank has brought spread like wildfire, which is a good thing in a net income of more than $10 million, both for Mycoskie and for the people and his work with the organization that TOMS aims to help. Mycoskie landed Yunus a Nobel Prize in 2006. founded TOMS in 2006 after a visit to Argentina where he learned that many children get sick or injured because they do not have shoes to wear. To combat this, he created TOMS, a business that donates one pair of shoes to needy people for every pair that's bought. So far, the company has donated more than a million pairs of shoes. In 2011, the company
Selavip Newsletter 16 April 2019 launched another initiative which aims as a for-profit startup that has no profits, to give away a pair of glasses or saying, "We give away 100% of our sight-saving surgery for every pair of profits. Our shareholders are people in sunglasses or glasses sold. 17 countries around the world waiting for a rig to drive into a village and SCOTT HARRISON provide clean water to a few hundred people living there. We use the word Lack of clean and accessible drinking business so much more than nonprofit, water is sadly something that millions of even though that's what we are." The people (some estimates put it at more model seems to be working for him, and than a billion) worldwide face every day. Harrison has quickly created a new After a moment of clarity in Liberia, club model for social entrepreneurs to promoter Scott Harrison decided to emulate. make it his mission to change that, heading up the non-profit organization JEFFERY HOLLENDER Charity: water. Since it began, Charity has delivered clean drinking water to In 1988, Jeffery Hollender founded more than a million people in 17 cleaning, paper, and personal care different countries around the world. products company Seventh Generation. Harrison is perhaps one of the most The company focuses on producing successful social entrepreneurs of all products that have a reduced time, with his organization growing more environmental impact, avoiding the than 100% in the first quarter of 2011, harsh chemicals that are part of many of despite a major economic crisis that today's leading cleaning and personal paralyzed many similar ventures. care products. In addition, the company Harrison says he regards Charity: water donates 10% of pre-tax profits to funding nonprofits and businesses focused on the community, the environment, and responsible practices. Despite adhering to practices that many businesses claim limit profits, Hollender and his associates have built Seventh Generation into a major corporate force, bringing in over $150 million in revenue in 2010. Hollender was pushed out of his role at Seventh Generation in 2010, but that doesn't mean he's
Selavip Newsletter 17 April 2019 slowed down in social entrepreneurship. He helps with the American Sustainable Business Council, writes books on responsible business practices, and is a member of the Social Venture Network and founder of the Community Capital Bank.
XAVIER HELGESEN, CHRIS FUCHS, AND JEFF schools, and so far, has used 84 million KURTZMAN volumes to raise $12.1 million for literacy funding. The company attributes its Better World Books is an amazing success to using a "triple bottom line" example of a truly successful social model, caring not only about profits but entrepreneurship venture. Founded in also about the social and environmental 2002 by Notre Dame graduates Xavier impact of everything they do. Helgesen, Chris "Kreece" Fuchs, and Jeff Kurtzman, Better World's mission is to AKHTAR HAMEED KHAN maximize the value of every book out there and to help promote literacy Akhtar Hameed Khan, the around the world. The company works dedication to which and his activism in by reusing or recycling books through developing rural communities in Pakistan sales on their website and donations to earned him a nomination for the Nobel Prize. Two of Khan's most major projects during his life were the Comilla Cooperative Project and the Orangi Pilot Project. The Comilla Cooperative aimed to build local infrastructure in rural communities while also helping businesses grow through microfinance initiatives. It would ultimately be unsuccessful but would be a major learning experience for Khan as he would move on
Selavip Newsletter 18 April 2019 to other projects, including Orangi. In developing Egypt's first private contrast to Comilla, the Orangi Pilot pharmaceuticals company. His business Project would be quite successful, has been so successful that experts and helping a squatter community solve their ideas from it are being exported to South own problems with sanitation, health, Africa, India, Palestine, Senegal, and and housing, while offering Turkey. microfinance, education, and family planning. Some aspects of Khan's plan WILLIE SMITS are still in use today in areas all over Karachi. Microbiologist Willie Smits never really expected to become a social IBRAHIM ABOULEISH entrepreneur, but when he found an abandoned baby orangutan in 1989 Early in his career, Ibrahim while working in Indonesia, his career Abouleish was working in leading would quickly alter direction. Smits' work pharmaceutical firms in Europe, with orangutans would blossom into the developing new treatments for Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, osteoporosis and arteriosclerosis, but a which not only works to help orphaned trip to Egypt in the mid-'70s would or imperiled apes, but also helps locals change that. He would leave Europe and learn sustainable farming methods and move back to Egypt, founding the the benefits of reforestation. Smits also development initiative SEKEM (Ancient takes part in the Masarang Foundation, Egyptian for "vitality from the sun"). an amazingly innovative social enterprise Abouleish hoped that by using that uses thermal energy to turn sugar biodynamic farms, schools and palm juice into sugar and ethanol, vocational training centers, a medical providing jobs and power to the center, and trading company that he could not only help repair the environment but also the lives of the Egyptian farmers in those areas. SEKEM grows plants that are developed into herbal teas, fresh produce, and even organic cotton, which helps to sustain the other facilities it hosts. Abouleish has also played a key role in developing new chemical-free methods to process cotton and
Selavip Newsletter 19 April 2019 villages. Roy founded the Barefoot College, an organization which specializes in teaching illiterate women from poor villages how to become doctors, engineers, and architects. What's more impressive is that each of the college's campuses are solar powered and community while preserving the local often built and forests. In recognition for his work, Smits designed by former students. In founding has received knighthood in his native the college, Roy's goal wasn't to make a Netherlands as well as an Ashoka profit for himself, but to help improve Fellowship and a variety of other the economic production and quality of conservation-based awards. life of women throughout his native India (though some aspects of the BUNKER ROY project have spread to Africa as well). With women leading and running most Indian social activist and of the Barefoot College's operations, it's entrepreneur Sanjit "Bunker" Roy has clear that he's been pretty successful in helped thousands of people in Asia and achieving that goal. Africa learn vital technical skills and bring solar power to their sometimes remote For further information //www.online college org/about.us
Selavip Newsletter 20 April 2019 ARGENTINA E.J. Anzorena, S.J. April 2019
Social Argentinian Leaders Support Senegalese Street Vendors, imprisoned Posted on Sep 21, 2018 by Eds.
Senegal group of union leaders, popular workers while they were being harassed economy advocates, Senegalese street and taken into prison by Buenos Aires vendors, and militants from the Excluded City local authorities. Workers Movement and CTEP (MTE-CTEP) were taken into jail by One of the prominent social leaders Argentine police, in a situation marked imprisoned was Juan Grabois, a lawyer by a high dose of violence and violation who founded the Movement of Excluded of their human rights. This happened on Workers (MTE) in 2002. This organization Tuesday, after the unionists and the gathers waste pickers, street vendors workers from the mentioned popular and other informal workers and strives movement tried to support Senegalese for them to have dignified lives. Grabois is also a unionist leader of the Confederation of Workers of the Popular Economy (CTEP), a very unique trade union born in 2011. Today the union has more than 100,000 members from the informal economy. Since 2016 Grabois is an ad-honorem advisor to the former Pontifical Juan Grabois, lawyer and founder the Movement of Council for Justice and Excluded Workers (MTE). Peace.
Selavip Newsletter 21 April 2019 The MTE and the CTEP are involved repression and the arrest of Juan Grabois, with the situation of Senegalese street and other recognized references of the vendors in Buenos Aires City, which is CTEP, such as Sergio Sánchez, Jacquelina one of the most precarious groups of Flores and Rafael Klejzer. people at this moment. It is estimated that about 4,000 Senegalese people live Due to the social pressure exerted-a in Argentina, most of them in Buenos massive crowd that convened Aires. Working in Buenos Aires is not immediately in front of the police station easy for the Senegalese street vendors. where the workers and militants were The government is so obsessed with being detained, the arrested workers sweeping them away from the streets. and social militants were released As they do not know the local legislation around midnight. and do not speak Spanish thoroughly, the authorities and the security forces do The statements of the leaders after whatever they want with them. They their release were focused on their deep steal or take away their goods from the worry about the human rights situation public space and even from their private and demanded for respect of the households. constitutional right to work for everybody in Argentinean soil. In this context, on Tuesday evening, a new act of police harassment took For further information: place against the Senegalese street The Movement of Excluded vendors who work daily in the Workers (MTE) neighborhood of Constitución, where CTEP headquarters are based. Trying to defend them from violence, several militants of the MTE tried to put a halt to the police action. The security force responded by arresting the workers and militants.
As a result of this violent episode, a spontaneous rally at the conflict zone demanded the release of the workers and its militants. This peaceful and small demonstration was fought back with an army of https://mronline.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/imag police, gas pepper, beatings,
Selavip Newsletter 22 April 2019 CHINA HONG KONG E.J. Anzorena, S.J. April 2019
Beginning off Community Organizing in Hong Kong
To support the squatters evicted by organizers. Among them are Joe Leung some Asian governments in the 1970 an who is now, honorary professor, organization called ACPO (formed by University of Hong Kong and Mr. Pao Christian lieders) asked the famous Ping-wing. Mr. Roche sent them to sociologist Saul Alinsky to help the different communities under conflict to organization of the poor in different explore issues for organizing, and cities. The SELAVIP Newsletter has identify problems that needed to be written extensively about Herbert resolved. White who was sent by Alinsky to Seoul, Manila Mumbai and other Asian cities. They had regular discussions and He trained the community organizers sharings. Mr. Roche asked them to from Korea, Philippines and India. raise the awareness of residents, identify resident leaders who could organize However, in August 2018 I received people to fight for their own rights. information from a nephew of Mr. Daniel They used sit-ins, mass meetings, Roche, a community organizer of Saul petitions, marches to draw press Alinsky who was sent to Hong Kong to attention, exercising indirect pressures organize the urban poor under threat of on government,” he said. “Obviously the eviction. Here I want to document the government had never experienced such first steps in community organizing in a challenge before. Hong Kong. The American who first came to Hong Kong in 1971 was hired as We never talked about theories. We a consultant by the Hong Kong religious acted, reflected, and acted through trial leaders of ACPO. They wanted to set and error. Roche was supportive and up an organization to defend the rights encouraging.” of the poor workers. Their first project was to help about Training 3,500 people in the Yau Ma Tei Typhoon He arrived in July and immediately Shelter get rehoused, after they were began mentoring five trainee community displaced from their boat huts because of reclamation work at Tai Kok Tsui.
Selavip Newsletter 23 April 2019
The following year the group helped British colony and is unrecognizable from residents living in squatter huts in Tai the city he left, Roche still sees the same Hang Tung get resettled after storms had challenges that prompted SoCO’s left them homeless. creation all those years ago.
The British authorities considered Roche met his former trainees and him a troublemaker and when he Mr. Ho Hei-wah, the present director of established the Society for SoCO, working with the homeless of Community Organisation (SoCO), Hong Kong and gave him some pictures defending the city’s voiceless – the of the1970s. homeless - the police raided his flat and he was deported in 1972s. “It’s crucial to speak truth to power, In August 2018, Roche who is 79 speak for the powerless, and empower years old, went back to Hong Kong. the poor to fight for their own rights,” Although Hong Kong is no longer a the 79-year-old said to the Post
Selavip Newsletter 24 April 2019
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Selavip Newsletter 26 April 2019 INDIA E.J. Anzorena, S.J. April 2018
Christmas Letter 2018 from Kolkata
In 1975 I stayed for one month with the brothers of Charity (the male branch of Mother Teresa). They were sharing their life with the street children and with the poor who were sick and dying in the streets of Kolkata. This experience moved me to try to help the poor to improve their housing situation. Over there I met Brother Yesudas. We became friends. - Fr. Jorge Anzorena
Christmas is coming closer and we can In it we discover when the strong just feel it as we move in the market. and the weak live together, a And much of this feeling is all about the compassionate love is born: mutual help sentimental celebration of acquiring pass through weakened bodies. Our branded clothes, shoes, gifts and cakes coming together, leads us to become etc, not of life experience we want to someone uniquely valuable. Because gather. The purpose of life is not when we come together to help others accumulating things but to live joyfully who are weak, we enter into a meeting with laughter. point. It is a meeting between the pain of God and the pain of the poor. I am We are five brothers in Karuna discovering more and more by Bhavan living with 60 people suffering welcoming the poor, weak and wounded from different types of mental disorders. people, we are revealing a new presence We experience the joy and laughter of of Jesus - it is true Christmas. these people in the midst of our desire to be with them. Our life here is an In this experience of true Christmas, encounter between our weakness and we marvel at the joy and laughter of our the strength of God's grace that allow us people here - Muntu Ghosh jumps and to live daily a full and joyful life in which sings, Ghosh Babu sings Bhajan (Holy our service to these poorest means hymn) early morning, Amar Singh laugh doing small things for them with joy and endlessly and make others laugh with laughter for the glory of God and for him. And Rajkumar walks all around their growth. the house restlessly and Potal Kumar
Selavip Newsletter 27 April 2019 walks fast with a great laugh and shout called Nazareth. He did all his miracles in with shrill cry. Mr: Bhola Mistri, Saddam the small towns in Galilee. He came to Hussain and Syamol Ghosh walking show us small things are beautiful before around looking for tobacco to chew. God and the joy of our life in God comes Rithic Das and Dinesh Yadav sit quietly from small things. So, doing small things with a smile wash the plates of everyone together for others who are in need is after each meal. Mr Sahiba and Manoj Christmas and make us saints of the Das are always busy to keep our modern world. Many years ago, I came compound clean. Our 96-year-old Mr across a Prayer: - Satish Chandra Das Gupta sits on the chair without any complaint or any "Lord of all pots and pans and things demand and always says - I am OK. In Since I have no time to be him there is serenity and quiet peace, a A saint by doing lovely things, holy relaxation. They don’t have an or watching late with thee attitude of accumulating, but they live or dreaming in the dawn-light their life as a presence of Joy. or storming heaven's gates Make me a saint by getting meals Being here in Karuna Bhavan with and washing up the plates." these sick men, I have seen the calmness, joy and laughter, I have come to the Doing small things together as a understanding of life is that it's a very family, as a community may reveal to simple, joyful, light-hearted thing. I feel others Jesus living and acting in us which we should not disturb it by our is filling us with Joy. May that presence seriousness, move with it. Do not be of Jesus be the Joy for all of you on this hard on ourselves. Be a little more Christmas and for the coming-New Year. compassionate, a little more loving. We can live this whole life with so many Wish you all a grace-filled Christmas songs and so many dances and that will and Happy New Year. arise our gratitude. And that gratitude is Christmas - gratitude towards our With Love and Light, existence - it is holiness. So we can give a Brother Yesudas. MC chance to our life to flower through small things we do for others and For further information: watching the beauty of small things in Missionaries of Charity others. "Karuna Bhavan" 16 Hari Mohan Dutta Road Jesus came as a small child in Dum Dum Cantonment Bethlehem. He grew up in a small place Kolkata – 70002
Selavip Newsletter 28 April 2019
INDIA E.J. Anzorena, S.J. April 2019
Ladakh Education and Ice Stupas
Ladakh in the northern India state of is a blend between Tibetan culture, Jammu and Kashmir, is a high-altitude, indigenous traditions and influence from cold desert region where some 300,000 the ancient Buddhist regions of Kashmir people struggle in the midst of a harsh and Central Asia. When the people of environment, wars arising from the rival Ladakh’s neighboring regions of Kashmir, claims of India, Pakistan, and China. Baltistan, Kargil and Afghanistan converted from Buddhism to Islam, Ladakh was an ancient Tibetan relations with Tibet remained an kingdom, founded by the descendants of important source of cultural inspiration the last Tibetan king, Langdarma. In the for the Ladakhi. The political mid-19th century it became part of developments of the mid-20th century Indian Kashmir. put an end to both trade and cultural exchange. All roads to Tibet were closed, Having been for centuries an and India and China engaged in a still important crossroads of trans-Asian unresolved border dispute. The partition trade, Ladakh’s unique cultural heritage between India and Pakistan put an end
Selavip Newsletter 29 April 2019 to trade and even personal contacts Wangchuk was born in a small, between regions to the north and west, remote village of Ladakh. He had a effectively locking Ladakh into isolation difficult education because minorities and to standstill stagnation. India were discriminated against, schools were granted semi-autonomy status to Ladakh, lacking and poorly-equipped, teaching but the basic education is given in Indian standards abysmal, locally irrelevant and language unknown to the local children the medium of instruction alien in the mountains. Left mostly to fend for With climate change the glacial that himself, he took control of his life early were closed to the villages providing the on. water for agriculture receded to several kilometers away. He was a 19-year-old engineering student at the National Institute of An Agent of Change: Technology in Srinagar, Kashmir, when Sonam Wangchuk he went into tutoring to finance his schooling and help woefully unprepared In 2018 the Ramon Magsaysay students pass the national college Foundation elected engineer Sonam matriculation exams. Renting a hotel Wangchuk from Ladakh to receive the function room, he advertised a coaching 2018 Ramon Magsaysay Award program that, exceeding expectations, recognizing “his uniquely systematic, drew close to a hundred students. collaborative and community-driven Teaching basic subjects like English and reform learning systems in remote Math, using strategies like peer-to-peer northern India, thus improving the life teaching, it was a success. opportunities of Ladakh youth, and the farmers, In 1988, after earning his engineering degree, Wangchuk founded
Selavip Newsletter 30 April 2019 Students’ Education and Cultural became a veritable movement. Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) and started coaching the Ladakh student, In 1994, with Wangchuk in the lead, 95% of whom used to fail the “Operation New Hope” (ONH) was government exams. To create lasting launched to expand and consolidate the impact, SECMOL partnered with the local partnership-driven educational reform government in a joint program of program. Taking a life of its own, to educational reform. Piloted in a village date ONH has trained 700 teachers, 1000 school, the program involved training VEC leaders, and dramatically increased teachers in “creative, child-friendly, and the success rate of students in activity-based” education; introducing matriculation exams from just 5% in curricular changes to make subjects 1996 to 75% by 2015. In 1998, relevant to the Ladakh culture and Wangchuk opened SECMOL School, with context; prioritizing English over Urdu to a permanent faculty, volunteers, and a better prepare students for higher yearly average of 300 students. An education and promoting the Ladakh alternative boarding school that offers a language. Village education committees review, certificate, and associate-level (VEC) were organized to support schools, courses, it rebuilds the students’ monitor teacher performance, and confidence, develops life skills, revisits become true stakeholders. Successfully the fundamentals and offers courses piloted, this initiative of “localizing” ranging from leadership training to solar schools was replicated in 33 schools and power installation and
Selavip Newsletter 31 April 2019 community-driven reform of learning Beyond Ladakh, Wangchuk has shared systems in remote northern India, thus his environmental and educational improving the life opportunities of innovations with mountain peoples Ladakh youth,” across the whole Himalayan.
Ice Stupa Irrigation During spring season, water requirement for sowing increases A natural innovator, Wangchuk whereas streams dry up. With annual works out of the local experience. rainfall of less than 50 millimeters (2.0 Seeing how climate change has affected in), agriculture in Ladakh is solely the natural water supply for agriculture, dependent on snow and glacier melt he developed artificial glaciers in the water. form of “ice stupas” for irrigation during Subsequently, during the spring the dry summer. Called “stupas”, these season water is scarcer which in turn are conically-shaped ice mountains that impacts agriculture and food supplies. store water in winter and in summer melts slowly been able to supply farm Wangchuk thought of freezing and irrigation water till the later spring. Six storing water in the shape of a cone that stupas he and his team have created offers minimum surface area to the sun store roughly 30 million liters of water. whilst holding high volume of water.
Selavip Newsletter 32 April 2019 The idea is very simple and needs Ice Stupa finally reaching close to the no pumps or power. We all know that height of the source. water maintains its level. Therefore, water piped from 60m upstream in pipes These Ice Stupas due to their conic 4 feet underground to avoid freezing shape will last longer melting till May- when open easily rise close to 60m up June and provide the needed water for from ground when it reaches the village. agriculture in the springtime, just when the fields need watering The water will lose their latent heat in contact and due the cold Ladakh winter nights when it is -30°C the water For further Information: would freeze by the time it reaches the Magsaysay Foundation ground and slowly form a huge cone or //icestupa.org/
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PAKISTAN E.J. Anzorena, S.J. April 2019
A Voice from Slums By Dr Noman Ahmed November 11, 2018
Jockin Arputham's struggle empowered slum dwellers and informed them of their rights world over
shacks and slums for the next three decades of his life. He learned the vocation of wood work and initially practiced it to earn a living. During these times, he began observing the problems faced by the marginalized communities in Mumbai. The fear of eviction was the foremost among his fellow shack Jockin Arputham, who was regarded dwellers. Like other primate cities in as the voice of slum dwellers across the populous South Asia, more than half of globe, passed away in Mumbai on the urban population in Mumbai used to October 13, 2018. He was a strong reside in slums without proper services proponent of the rights of slum dwellers and security of tenure. This equation has in cities, whom he termed one of the not changed to date. most important social class that managed menial works and sustained Jockin and his comrades organized the lifestyle of the middle classes. the slum dwellers at the grass roots level and developed many community-based Jockin continued to struggle for organizations in different locations with ensuring safety of tenure for the a purpose to consolidate their voice. He vulnerable slum dwellers in different founded National Slum Dwellers locations in Mumbai since 1970s. From Federation (NSDF) in India as an his early childhood, Jockin moved to umbrella organization to fight for the Mumbai where he lived on pavements,
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rights and protection of the urban poor strategies, slum infrastructure communities. development, creation of saving groups, enumerations and mapping work and Large and medium sized cities mutual exchange of ideas and received thousands of migrants as new experiences. city dwellers for whom no provision of housing or urban basic services were In a world where social dislocations available. Jockin supported these are common due to war, disasters, social communities to organize them and fight conflict and loss of agricultural or for their rights in the wake of eviction pastoral livelihood, the survival option fears. Side by side, he enabled these for the helpless is to migrate to cities. organizations to evolve development Living in informal sector, working for day strategies for provision of water supply wages and managing the disconnect arrangements, sanitation and livelihood from city affairs in every respect remain support. Building of toilets, basic shelters the key predicaments of such neo-urban and other facilities was ably done by dwellers. In the process, these people Jockin and his team. are routinely exploited by the administration and the wealthy. Slums are in every developing country. Many of the challenges faced by Jockin directed his work to the slum dwellers are common. When a empower this disenfranchised urban solution is developed and applied in one population and informed them of their context, there is a significant possibility rights. He also mobilized them at that the same solution could be wholly multiple levels so that slum dwellers or partially relevant to other locations. could negotiate with respective Jockin realized this fact and worked hard municipalities and development to evolve an international platform for agencies for acquiring ‘the right to exist’ addressing the issues of slum dwellers. in respective cities.
An organization namely Slum Jockin’s work was enormously Dwellers International (SDI) was founded relevant and inspirational for the in 1996 with its headquarters in Cape Pakistani urban context. There have Town, South Africa. Jockin was its been many projects which caused president. The other countries that irreversible damage to human joined included Kenya, India, Nepal, settlements and environment. Namibia, Burkina Faso, Swaziland, Development programs often give rise to Thailand, Togo, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, vast scale population displacements. Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, Argentina, These displacements, at times, are a Brazil, Bolivia, Sierra Leone, Lesotho, consequence of inappropriate choice of Ghana and Angola. SDI focused on the projects, poor design and rigid promotion of women development implementation procedures. Usually
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such displacements — appropriately for promoting in-migrations to cities, termed evictions — affect the poor, particularly from Khyber helpless and politically marginalized Pakhtunkhwa/FATA. Realtors view Katchi communities. Once the state machinery Abadis as potential gold mines and lobby sets out to undertake a project or for allowing high density, high rise programme to that effect, demolition of development on the strategically located property, destruction of sites. The reality is in sharp contrast to houses/residences and dislocation of these perceptions. In reality, Katchi communities becomes the natural Abadis are places where service outcome. providers and other ordinary folks reside. Without their existence, the high It is ironic to note that foundations of lifestyles of the rich cannot be sustained. developmental projects are laid on the debris of the dwellings, businesses and Jockin’s struggle and invaluable occupation outlets of hundreds of very contribution to the cause of slum poor people. Construction of large-scale dwellers was globally recognized. KIIT dams, expressways, water works and University in Bhubaneswar conferred an recently the real estate developments of honorary doctorate degree upon him in mega scale, all such undertakings give rise 2009. He received the prestigious Ramon to forced evictions. A few years ago, more Magsaysay Award for peace and than 200,000 people had to be displaced international understanding in 2000. The to construct an exclusive signal free Indian government decorated him with corridor of movement along Lyari river in Padma Shri Award in 2011, the fourth Karachi. Similarly, thousands of indigenous highest civilian honour. Jockin was also farmers along the Super Highway were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in forced to leave their abodes and farms to 2014. His death has been widely pave the way for a controversial real mourned by the dispossessed. estate development in private sector.
Slums in Pakistani urban context are a common entity. They are often referred to as Katchi Abadis (squatter settlements). Some quarters believe that Katchi Abadis are scars on our urban face and must be demolished, to be replaced by ‘neat’ and Dr Noman Ahmed ‘orderly’ structures. The author is Chairperson of Department of Architecture and Planning at NED The local political elite in urban University, Karachi. He can be reached at Sindh consider Katchi Abadis as vehicles [email protected]
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PAKISTAN E.J. Anzorena, S.J. April 2019
City and Plans Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2018
The recent demolitions of formal and without access to proper education, informal businesses in Karachi have health, family planning, and jobs. raised some important questions. What People work and at lunchtime they is a city? What are encroachments? need places to eat cheaply. Formally, What is culture and heritage and law? these do not exist so pavement restaurants and hawkers develop to The city is where people live, work, cater to their needs. The working classes come to study, trade and fulfill their have a desperate need for cheap bazaars dreams. These activities require but there are no spaces for them, so wholesale markets which we did not they occupy the pavements of the city. provide, and so they expanded in the old All that we were unable to give to the city and destroyed almost all our built city, and which the city has acquired heritage. They required cargo terminals itself out of necessity, is known as which we also did not provide so they encroachments. developed wherever there was space without workers’ homes, toilets, and Heritage is not just buildings. other social requirements, causing not It is much more than that. only social problems but also immense problems for heavy vehicles exiting the However, we have developed huge city. housing societies with lots of big plots for the elite and the middle classes of We have not provided bus terminals, this country but here too we were not depots, and workshops, and so by paying able to provide sufficient space for bhatta they have established themselves entertainment, recreation, health and on the roads of the city creating education facilities. So today, they unbearable congestion. We were unable function out of houses and commercial to provide affordable and accessible areas not meant for them. These are also housing to our working class so they live encroachments. in katchi abadis in perpetual insecurity
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Heritage is not just buildings. It is But why did Karachi’s planners and much more than that — it is living politicians not plan for all that was tradition which is added to as the city required? One of the possible reasons evolves and which is related to the was an absence of anthropological history of the neighborhood in which the research on socioeconomic relations buildings are located. It is nihari, sajji, which did not feed into the planning Baloch ice cream, Ghaseetay Khan Ka process. As such, the planners were Haleem and public spaces to have them unable to understand the social at an affordable cost. Such spaces too, dynamics of the city. The other aspect is we have not provided. related to the fact that the planners and In the narrow lanes of Karachi’s the politicians were more interested in settlements, young people create the form of the city than aspects of libraries, arrange mushairas, qawwalis, livability, the product of class biases in variety programmes, practice the their education and society. The musical instruments that they have development of large-scale industrial secretly learned to use, and young estates was undertaken, but again, in singers desperately try to find a place in most cases, without space for workers’ the world of music. There are no spaces homes, and the informal support for them to learn, practice, develop and facilities that they required. perform. As such, many aspiring artists fail to fulfil their dreams. We have never Architects are supposed to be the thought of these issues or of multi-class conscience of society for the spaces where popular culture can evolve development of a humane city. However, and take root. And then there are no Karachi’s architects have sought places where we can protest against the patronage from the rich and the real or conceived tyranny of the state, powerful and catered to their needs. international events and social customs With the exception of a few, they have and biases. not worked or lobbied towards accommodating in a humane manner Cities are living entities. They do not the needs of an evolving city. Hopefully, wait for formal plans to acquire what as a result of the demolitions that have they need. True, they acquire it in an ad taken place, they will come closer to the hoc manner, shaped by the limitations of ethics of their profession and try and the financial and planning capabilities integrate the needs of Karachi’s citizens and capacities of their informal planners. into the larger planning process. And if the planning does not accommodate and support this informal As far as law is concerned, there process, the city bursts and eats up that should always be a possibility to appeal which was formally planned. against its procedural aspects so as to protect the functions the city has acquired out of necessity in the absence
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of planning or official indifference and corruption. For further information: [email protected] The writer is an architect. www.arifhasan.org
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PAKISTAN E.J. Anzorena, S.J. April 2019
Street Markets the World Over Compiled by Bushra Sarwar with Arif Hasan
The pictures contained in this folder markets generate considerable revenue have been put together to show to the for local governments. persons and agencies involved in taking decisions on urban planning issues on Markets in Karachi pay crores of Karachi that hawkers need not be rupees per day to the representatives of evicted as they can be resettled in a government agencies who are provided manner that is aesthetic and that does police support in extracting Bhatta not create congestion and hindrance to (money) from the so-called encroachers. vehicular traffic or pedestrian movement. Let us not simply destroy but build new multiclass spaces for a more The markets shown in the attached equitable Karachi. pages are those that have been setup by local governments. In some cases, For further information: space has been leased to individual hawkers; in others they have been given [email protected] the responsibility to operate and www.arifhasan.org manage these markets. In all cases the
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Selavip Newsletter 55 April 2019 PAKISTAN E.J. Anzorena, S.J. April 2019
Technical Training Resource Center (TTRC)
The Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) Charitable Trust, involved in loans to collectively designates several small and poor entrepreneurs, Pakistani non-governmental organisations working together, To maintain their efficiency an having emerged from a socially important characteristic of OPP is their innovative project carried out in reluctance to expand their direct area of 1980s in the squatter areas of action and their organization far away Orangi Town, Karachi, Pakistan. It from Orangi Town of Karachi. In cases of was initiated by Akhtar Hameed requests for services from organizations Khan, and involved the local from distant places, OPP trained and residents solving their own supported them technically and sanitation problems. Innovative financially until they became methods were used to provide independent partners. adequate low cost sanitation, health, housing and microfinance facilities. OPP-OCT has done very efficiently in other provinces, mainly in the province The most influential OPP of Sindh. organizations, borne out of the original OPP in 1989 : OPP-RTI (Research and Parween Rahman from OPP-RTI Training Institute); and, OPP-OCT (Orangi engaged the local low income
Selavip Newsletter 56 April 2019 In progress: 7 2. Construction Supervision Supervised in the reporting period: 8 Total supervised: 342 In progress: 6
Youth Training
The objective of this program is to train youths from low-income settlements of Karachi and Province Sind unemployed youth of the suburbs in the and involve them in the development development process and extended the process. The trained youths are not only housing and other program initiated in motivated to improve their area Orangi by OPP-RTI. conditions but are also detached from any negative activities that they might
get involved in. One of them founded the TTRC in
1997. OPP-RTI delegated some of its work to the TTRC. Through this program various trainings are imparted: area sketching
and mapping, basic drafting, Flood and Earthquake Rehabilitation architectural planning, leveling survey,
cost estimation, scale drawing and The earthquake and flood affected documentation of low-income the areas in Awaran and 10 districts of settlements. Apart from these training, Province Sind, Baluchistan and Punjab Auto CAD, Corel Draw, GPS and Total respectively. In Awaran, TTRC worked Station training is also provided. In with URC with the financial support of addition to this, a new initiative in ACHR, though post flood rehabilitation training is addressing senior primary and work was carried out in collaboration secondary students on basic computer with OPP with the financial support of skills. This reporting period, two youths Misereor, were provided computer training on
windows installation, software Low Cost Housing Program installation, basic drafting, MS office,
Freehand and In page. More schools are
1. Design and Cost Estimation now willing to be a part of this. Completed in the reporting period: 21 Trainings Total completed: 722
Selavip Newsletter 57 April 2019 Reporting period: 19 Ten Master Trainers from Learning Total completed: 398 Associates on Phonics (the sound of In progress: English, letter sounds, short vowels and long vowels and consonants) are o Basic drafting/AutoCAD/basic multiplying their efforts. They organize survey: 9 house trainings to equip more teachers
o Basic computer software with skills, knowledge and installation & MS Office: 9 methodologies of phonics.
Mason Training and Mobile Guidance A training on “School Management” was conducted in March 2018. Twenty Reporting period: 11 teachers from eight schools in Orangi Total: 345 participated. In progress: 06
For further information: Teacher Training TTRC [email protected]
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PHILIPPINES E.J. Anzorena, S.J. April 2019
Bakukang By Raymund L. Fernandez
Bakukang is the black homed beetle this to a creature who means you no native here where we have forests of harm? coconut trees. They are not pests. They have at best a neutral effect on the It was a sentence of death. environment such that we wonder why Bakukang never lived long after being they are there at all. The beauty of tied this way. And I always wondered: moths and butterflies justify their Where and what place Bakukang was existence. Even if they can be harmful headed to before falling into while they are still caterpillars. And if you misfortune? Home to mother? have ever been “touched” by a hairy caterpillar then you would know how it But the bigger mystery is why feels to have allergic rashes and welts innocent little kids did this? Who or what spreading all over your skin. Bakukang taught them this was any fun? Where’s are so much more benign. You would the fun in taking away another have to look very closely to see how creature’s freedom? And it may well be beautiful they are, how they have tiny that it is we, not Bakukang, who are dark touches of orange hair. They are mysterious creatures. Could this explain armored, quite big as bugs go. They why we are what we are? seem too heavy to fly. But they do. They are not sleek like cockroaches. They are We should ask why the issue of dark mysterious creatures. martial law recurs over and over again. Why do we still wonder whether the But where I grew up, the local kids dictator Marcos was a hero or not? He would tie a length of string around was a crook. In times of social stress, Bakukang and watch it fly tethered to why do we always revert back to the old their hand. They found a measure of glee logic that our problems can be traced from doing this to the poor creature. I back to our people having too much still cannot understand why. Why the freedom? But seldom ever our own glee? I mean. What’s so big with doing freedom. Never the freedom of all
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people. Just certain dark mysterious Americans. Given that condition, it people who go by many names, which seems logical for them to teach us, the names often change with the seasons: colonized, to be wary and even afraid of addicts, thieves, snatchers, activists, freedom. Throughout our colonial years communists, gay, useless people, rebels, the expression of freedom was always the poor and marginalized, the punished with incarceration or death. troublesome…Bakukang. Remember Bonifacio, Rizal. etc. Consider Leon Kilat. We should begin to wonder if it is not freedom itself that we fear. Could it be that nearly half a millennium of being slaves have turned Less than a century ago, we were us into our own colonizers, so afraid of little more than colonized slaves. Only freedom that we now consider ourselves after the last world war were, we and most of our people Bakukang? And technically an independent state. But we then treat them accordingly were never culturally so. Consider how there were only a few Spanish there For further information: throughout the 400 years we were their [email protected] colony. It was even worse for the
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PHILIPPINES E.J. Anzorena, S.J. April 2019
Paradise By Raymund Fernandez
I grew up as a child in Paradise. Though This was far and away from Ylaya, this Paradise seemed a poor one; still, it Dumanjug Municipality, where I grew up seemed to me as if we were the richest as a child under the care of my family. people there. And this fact planted in We lived inside a rural folk culture. We me the seeds of a wonderful guilt that too had little by way of means. And yet, stays with me even to this day. For we also had little by way of want. My though I would find out later on in life mother, Consuelo, who graduated as a how truly poor we were I always knew Pharmacist from UP Manila – she there were others so much poorer than received The Collegian regularly by mail we; Some of them, impossibly poor. – was their doctor for ordinary ailments not requiring a real doctor. We had As a young man, I began my enough. What we had more of we gave professional career as a feature writer to others who might have needed it for a weekly magazine. I once covered more. We lived in a culture that was, a young woman, no husband, two convivial, nurturing, and I would even go children, no visible means of support so far as to say, Epicurean, after the save for a pig that she was fattening up Greek Hellenistic philosopher whom I for eventual butchering and sale. Her chanced upon last week in YouTube daily cycle involved going to the nuns at under a site called, Philosophy: Epicurus. lmmaculada Concepcion School for food I would go so far as to exclaim how it scraps to feed the pig. I suppose she was this Epicurean community that got food there also for herself and her defined me as a person. For while I children. She lived in a relocation site would lose and gain much in the course in Compostela. The nun’s school was of life, one thing stays with me: Hope, many kilometers away in Gorordo Happiness, and the feeling of well-being Avenue, uptown Cebu City. I was are not impossible. In fact, they are appalled that given her condition, she quite easy. Though it may not seem so still survived and was quite capable of inside the complexity of the struggling on. She must have been as industrialized urban life that we must capable as I for those feelings of struggle in right now. I have to see momentary hope and joy that keep us through this complexity and figure it as going. illusion, which only hides the same Paradise that I grew up in. I am
Selavip Newsletter 71 April 2019 convinced it is still there though it lies sacrifice. We need more because we hidden under many layers of required want more. It is this want that makes pretensions and the constant us even poorer than we should be. competition that defines the rat race. It is there, though not so easy to see. In the Ylaya, Dumanjug Municipality, of my childhood, we knew we had little. To see it, one must see the beyond But we knew we needed little to get obvious the distrust and fear in the eyes those things that we really ought to of those around us. We all want the want: Happiness, and Well-being. And same things really: Hope, Happiness, and so, we were not really poor despite living Well-being. admittedly poorly. But we tend to think that others threaten our ability to get these. Or, For further information: we go by the notion that these things are [email protected]:Kinu difficult to achieve, that to get these [email protected] involves conflict, unending pain, and
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PHILIPPINES E.J. Anzorena, S.J. April 2019
Securing Human Rights through Organizing People for Power by Bimbo Fernandez
Outline of Presentation Kisumu Housing Conference Adequate and Affordable Housing for All 19-22 March 2019
The presentation will focus on the The presentation will identify the experience of Pagtambayayong, a strategies adopted by the urban poor non-government organization based in with their friends in the Philippines to Cebu City Philippines that was founded make possible the adequate and by a group of community organizers in affordable housing for all. It will also 1982. Pagtambayayong helps organize describe the rationale’, the context of and support the organization of these strategies and how they have grassroots communities to enable them succeeded and/or failed to succeed. to assert and secure their Human Rights, including their right to housing. Strategy 1: Prevent Eviction It is a fact that in developing Pagtambayayong believes that the countries, the poor themselves are the victims of the injustice have the will and builders of homes - not the private the energy to transform the situation. sector, not the NGOs, not even the Not the perpetrators, not the bystanders, government. not even the do-gooders. Genuine Unfortunately in the Philippines, liberation and development must be because of our colonial history, land is bottom-up. But there is a need to help owned by a few. Most are forced to them organize. The culture of poverty is occupy private lands. And when these however so imbedded in their beings lands become more developed and that there is a need to help them liberate valuable, their landowners evict them. their consciousness and to build a The Community Organizers circa 1969, structure for power. who would later form Pagtambayayong worked with the Catholic Social Action Centers and the Philippine Ecumenical
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Council Community Organizers. Strategy 2: Community Mortgage Together with other groups, we have Program achieved a level of success. In 1969 it In 1986, the Marcos dictatorship was very easy to evict the urban poor was toppled by the people power revolt. from the lands they have occupied. Now Pagtambayayong’s self-help housing evictions have become very difficult. cooperatives became the model for the Most community associations now resist government’s Community Mortgage evictions. And many of them have Program. succeeded. Many have even acquired The difference between the security of tenure (and even ownership) conventional housing development of on the land that they heretofore the government and the private sector allegedly illegally occupied. And many of versus the housing development of the those who did not succeed were informal sector. relocated to decent homes on sites close to their livelihood via the people’s plan Strategy 3: Government Lands and in-city relocation policy Cebu City. The CSOs participated The urban poor and their friends in the electoral process (Community continued the struggle for land and Organizing through the Ballot) and got housing. In 1992, the Urban the following concessions: Division for Development and Housing Act that the Welfare of the Urban Poor, lands bestows rights on the urban poor owned by the local government. became a law. Very recently, a law National Government: Presidential creating the Department of Housing and Proclamations, Residential Pre Patent Urban Development was passed, thus elevating land and housing to a higher Strategy 4: Social Housing government priority. Housing for the low income by the private and non-profit sectors Birth of Pagtambayayong People’s plans, In-city relocations To provide housing for themselves Balanced Housing and their friends, a self-help housing Social housing as a mandatory cooperative was formed. component of infrastructure project. Many other urban poor groups became interested. Challenges On September 8, 1982, We have the laws, but Pagtambayayong – Foundation for implementation is very poor Mutual Aid, Inc. was formed. It formed Private landowners and housing many self-help housing cooperatives that developers secure a court order to became an alternative to the dictator’s forcibly evict their occupants. The housing programs. responsibility to provide relocation is with the government and not the private
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sector. Government cannot cope up with There is a great and urgent need the need. to recruit, train and support community Bureaucracy is generally corrupt organizers. and/or incompetent. Climate Change spawns disasters Note: This may be expanded or reduced that victimize especially the poor. depending on the available time. Focus Climate Change Adaptation on certain items? This may also be activities very often further dislocates converted into a power point the poor. presentation.
Conclusion For further information: Development from the bottom-up. [email protected] o:[email protected]
Selavip Newsletter 75 April 2019 SOUTH AFRICA E.J. Anzorena, S.J. April 219
Lindiwe Sisulu Talks about Jockin Arputham
Sisulu is the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation and former Minister of Human Settlements of South Africa.
The world lost an inspirational leader complete self-assurance and a deep and fighter for slum-dwellers' rights, understanding that resolution of conflict who died in India on Saturday, 13 came from seeing your own humanity in October 2018, at the age of 71. those that the gross inequalities of life forced you to challenge. The gentle giant will be missed by all of us around the world, especially his He saw the need, above all, to get constituency in Africa, Asia and South government to see the "slum" America for his energy, vision, dogmatic population as a tremendous resource certainties and commitment – all of that they could work with. which knew no bounds. Jockin Arputham fought for the rights of slum dwellers for "I am a proud slum dweller," Jockin over 40 years – going back to the early 1970s when he tried to stop the bulldozing of the settlement in which he lived in India.
In order to further these efforts, Jockin founded the National Slum Dwellers Federation, enduring constant harassment.
Jockin's tolerance is in the same ilk as some of the great leaders, including Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela. "Talk with government," he would say, "not fight with them." It was not weak and compromising. It was a tolerance of others that came from
Selavip Newsletter 76 April 2019 often said. "There is a war between the The many tens of thousands of urban rich and the urban poor … And I'm people who met Jockin will miss his trying to make peace between them." He magnetism. He was an enormously went on to say, "We are not impinging charismatic human being. All over the on resources. We don't take much water, world, Jockin's mantra to the homeless electricity, public transport. We are the and slum dwellers was "Identify the land, human resource of the city." dance on the land, have a picnic on the land, and then develop the land. When Jockin was a mentor and friend of government asks you how many people the South African Slum Dwellers live in your settlement, don't say 'plenty'. International (SDI) Alliance since its Collect your data and tell them a number. inception. Through him, they first started Because information is power." saving after visiting India where they saw that poor people could unite through He was an unstoppable force for saving and data collection. The result of good and an unbelievable champion of this relationship was the formation of the urban poor. For their rights most the Federation of Urban Poor (FEDUP), a certainly and for their humanity and for federation of savings groups set up by the recognition – not yet won – that they women living in our informal settlements. were not a mass of victims or guinea pigs. Together, using a range of tools, Instead, he was determined to show the including community-based saving ever-growing number of people who schemes, community-led data gathering understood the importance of listening and mapping of informal settlements, to him, that the capacities, the resilience FEDUP has devised innovative housing and the collective wisdom of the urban projects that have set precedents for poor presented governments with a better project implementation. blueprint for a better future.
Jockin and this federation showed Jockin in his beautiful gentle government that slum dwellers could manner, challenged us; not to score work together to expedite delivery and ideological or abstract victories promote efficiency. (although he certainly understood their value) but to make real, tangible These are the tools and experiences differences in the lives of poor people. he brought to the formation of the Slum Ministers, MECs and mayors in South Dwellers International (SDI) that he Africa who had the privilege of working helped found in 1995. Today, the SDI has with him knew this well. affiliated federations in over 30 countries. It is a global network that Few, if any organization in the world, learns from and supports each other, can demonstrate a similar scale and demonstrating innovative alternatives to depth in terms of Jockin's or the SDI's governments and international agencies. impact on poor communities – through
Selavip Newsletter 77 April 2019 enumeration, settlement mapping, downtrodden, excluded, evicted, securing tenure, installing drainage, exploited and objectified. upgrading services and incrementally building houses. The United Nations We mourn Jockin Arputham who (UN) Human Settlements Program has long taught and challenged us. Jockin, acknowledged this and in recent times, perhaps more than anyone else, has the SDI has occupied prominence at all shaped and informed our work in urban UN events. areas. Those hundreds of thousands of slum dwellers who belong to Jockin's This required superhuman energy beautiful, rag-tag, festive but deeply and courage. It necessitated a brilliant determined army are on the march. They mind. It demanded the capacity to see are the ones who will fill the opportunities and seize them. Most of all, "Jockin-sized hole" that the great man it required the ability to mobilize, has left behind. humanize, conscientize and inspire people like himself – people For further information sasdialliance.org.za
Selavip Newsletter 78 April 2019 SOUTH AFRICA E.J. Anzorena April 2019
Youth Mobilization in Orange Farm, Johannesburg
One of the landmark projects of the crucial to bring order. People have died Collaboration Youth Saving Scheme is while waiting for emergency service the street naming project in Orange provider e.g. like fire service and police Farm, Johannesburg. We have taken emergency teams because they couldn’t upon ourselves to name streets in our identify location to render quicker community. The naming of streets response. project is a response to the difficult of navigating the settlement. This project is We can’t always wait for important to us and the community as it government to think for us in terms of gives police, emergency services and the what will be good for us. The street general public a way of locating and naming project is the best innovation referencing properties. This project is a that can be even adopted elsewhere. product of our youth mobilization in The youth saving scheme engaged the Orange Farm, in which we have decided City of Johannesburg for support. The as young people to come together to youth also went on a learning exchange address common challenges. in Nairobi. The Nairobi youth is doing a numbering of structures project. Most of us have been living in Orange Farm for a very long time but still even today our streets are nameless. It is worse when it comes to letters and parcels sent to our people because most of the mail gets lost. In a place like Orange Farm it is very much possible for two sections to have the same number...… since our Youth members of Collaboration saving scheme townships is constantly identifying and naming streets in Orange Farm. growing, street naming is
Selavip Newsletter 79 April 2019 Collaboration Saving Scheme
Members of collaboration saving scheme draw their inspiration from Thusanang Saving Scheme, a federation (Fedup) group of mamas in Orange Farm. It is through this group that we have learned we approach savings is introducing about savings, the culture of federating different kind of music and dancing in and other Fedup rituals such as data the federation. We are actively involved collection, partnerships, and projects. in small projects and businesses ranging Some of us, at some, even participated from furniture making to music in the Thusanang saving scheme. As a production. In addition to saving, we result, we have first-hand experience eagerly engage the community’s youth from the mamas. through drama, dancing, and sports like soccer. Collaboration Saving Scheme brought different young people who Activities faced similar challenges. Some us had spent time seeking for employment with One of the things we strive to no luck due to limited work experience. achieve is to alleviate poverty. We Some us had sought further studies but believe that this can be done through struggled due to our financial status. As education. We know that this is an a result, we decided to come together ambitious goal, but it is something that and start our own saving scheme we strive to achieve. For example, we separately from the mamas because we have life skills programme that we have face problems that are different from recently started. Called “learn4life” the the mamas. programme encourages young people from Orange Farm to meet on a weekly Our youth group consists of savers basis to share knowledge and and young entrepreneurs ages 16-35. opportunities. This space is important in We are very experimental. We are the development of our community always prepared to push boundaries, but because the type of knowledge that we we rely on the guidance of our mamas get to share is necessary in our daily lives due to the experience that they have. ranging from health, business or One of the strongest examples in how environmental topics to social skills and
Selavip Newsletter 80 April 2019 personal development. The “learn4life” Pipeline Projects programme also offers curricular activities like acting, drama, choir and As a saving scheme, we have agreed dancing. to mobilize young people in all informal settlement around Gauteng. We have Fedup has unleashed our hidden also decided to engage on projects such talents, it has created space for us to test as internet café, day care center, street our potential. Our community is naming, catering for small and big events. struggling. Many young people are One of the initiatives in this regard involved in substance and drugs abuse, include spending Mandela Day doing violence and teenage pregnancy like community work at the Little Angels Day many other townships in South Africa. Care Center. The youth group Lack of education is another factor. immediately thought of Little Angels Some kids drop out of school. They do because it is one of the biggest day care not see any value in education because center in Orange Farm and has been with education you can only see the running for 11 years. We played with fruits of your success in the long term. and cooked for the kids so that the Another contributing factor is the lack of teachers could take a break. leisure activities. Many young people with a lot of free time engage in criminal or violent activities. We are trying to For further information: change how young people think. We September 7, 2018 in Archive, want to shift the thinking that define FEDUP, News, Resources, Youth young people as only leaders of Collaboration Saving Scheme tomorrow – into a thinking that young (on behalf of FEDUP) people can be leaders today and can sasdialliance.org.za make change now.
Collaboration saving scheme members visit to Little Angels Day Care Center
Selavip Newsletter 81 April 2019 THAILAND E.J. Anzorena, S.J. April 2019
Housing the Homeless
The homeless network in Thailand Kaen. Without a secure place to live, links city-based networks of bathe or cook, and without ID cards, homeless people in three cities so these most vulnerable of all far. It has been supported for Thailand’s poor are shut out of most many years by the Bangkok-based government welfare and health care NGO Human Settlements programs and face many dangers: Foundation (HSF) and the Four being raped, robbed, beaten up, Regions Slum Network. Since chased by the police, and face many 2003, HSF and the network have dangers: being robbed, beaten up, made frequent surveys of homeless chased by the police, and forced to people; most recently, they counted sleep in the rain. 1,093 homeless people in Bangkok, 136 in Chiang Mai and 166 in Khon In 2007, Bangkok’s homeless
Selavip Newsletter 82 April 2019 network designed and built its own allocated US$3.1 million for similar shelter in Bangkok’s Taling Chan homeless shelters in Chiang Mai District, in collaboration with CODI, Khon Kaen and other parts of the State Railways Authority, the Bangkok. Land has been acquired municipal government, HSF, the in two cities and the new shelter in Four Regions Slum Network and Chiang Mai was inaugurated in the local community network. A June 2018. Meanwhile, 12 departure from the government-run pioneering families from the shelters, this shelter represented a Bangkok homeless shelter have new co-production strategy for moved into the country’s first addressing homelessness: the permanent housing project designed government provides the land and and built by (formerly) homeless finances the construction, while the people themselves, on land leased homeless people run the shelter, inexpensively form the State make their own rules and develop Railway’s Authority, with housing their own program, according to the loans form CODI. real needs of the residents, with support from partner NGOs and For further information networks. [email protected] E&U Vol 30-2 p457 Inspired by this shelter’s success, the government has
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THAILAND E.J. Anzorena, S.J. April 2019
Housing for the Poorest (Baan Paw Pieng)
In 2017, the government launched a communities, identified their own housing program for the country’s poorest members and developed poorest citizens, urban and rural, plans for housing them. Because the called Baan Paw Pieng (“Sufficient subsidy was too small for even a Housing Program”), in which 9,000 minimal house, they did a lot of poor families (about 200 per leveraging and collaborating to province) get a small subsidy of raise enough funds to build good US$554 to improve or rebuild their houses for those families. houses. Local governments, district Normally, such a program authorities, provincial governments, would involve government-designed local businesses, NGOs and all sorts model houses and construction of civil society organizations contracts with commercial chipped in an additional US$ 9.4 developers. But perhaps because the million. In the first year alone, subsidy was so small, the new 10,370 housing units were built all program was passed to CODI. And over the country -370 more than the for CODI, that small subsidy was an target. opportunity to demonstrate a more community-managed, collaborative The government increased the way of addressing the housing 2018 grant to US$ 10.4 million to problems of the poorest families. subsidize another 15,000 houses. By February 2018, 14,000 units had Big meetings were organized in already been approved and were each of the country’s 76 provinces under construction. for all of the community networks in each province to discuss the For further information program and set plans. Networks [email protected] then surveyed their own E&U Vol30-2 October 218 p.458
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