A New Way to Think About Poverty

Today we talked at length about poverty, what we think of when we see it, what it looks like, and some of the underlying causes of this terrible pandemic. Many of us have a very basic idea of what poverty is (the economic and literal definition we learn in school at least,) but today that idea was challenged for me. At the farm, poverty is viewed not as a lack of resources but as a painful crisis in values. This crisis is a loss of intrinsic value and dignity. They like to say here that it is not poverty of the pocket that is the problem, but poverty of the mind and soul. 

In America, we seem to have a very unilateral view of poverty, and it is hard for us to look past that. We see homeless people on the streets and tend to avoid them. We tend to think that these people are just lazy and have squandered the opportunities that we all have "equally". In one of our orientation sessions here at the farm, one of the questions asked was "What are some of the causes of poverty? Why are these people poor?" At first, it was difficult to answer, but as the group conversations went on and comfort ability barriers were broken down, answers started flowing from people's mouths. My group alone was able to think of at least twenty different causes, and the thing that we found to be overwhelming true, especially here in the Philippines, is that many of these causes are things that are simply out of our control. It is often very difficult to think about this because many of us find it hard to put ourselves in the position.

I wanted to understand a little bit more about this whole "poverty of the mind" and lack of dignity thing that they were talking about at the farm so I could really embrace it. Tito Toni talked about how many of the poor Filipino people are poor, and don't realize that they could possibly not be poor. He said specifically that these communities have lost the ability to dream and one of the main missions of the farm is to re-instill that ability in the minds of the people. This made me realize how important it really was to have the ability to dream, because without it, you become complacent. So now, you not only have the problem that you have no money, but now, you are okay with it and do not have the ability see past your poverty. This is poverty of the mind. In a way it is more powerful than the traditional poverty we usually think of. It is very easy to accept a situation and let it be, but the difficult part is initiating change and implementing that change. This is precisely what they are doing at the farm and I have come to realize how important it actually is. The people seem so happy and thankful. This is partially due to volunteer help from students like us and the French interns, but I think there is a bigger reason. They now have now come to the realization that they can be the drivers of their lives. They can use their knowledge and handiness to innovate, create, and spread their goods across the world. 

Many of the social enterprises at the farm have products being sold not only in the Philippines, but also in Indonesia and even some countries in Europe. The different enterprises here include but are not limited to a toy making enterprise called 'Plush and Play', a beverage called 'Bayani Brew', and duck enterprise called 'Golden Duck', and many more. The fact that these enterprises have been so successful is a testament in and of itself to the necessity for places like Gawad Kalinga. A place like this that instills hope and focused on the ability to dream could really help a lot of the poor communities we have in the US. We can learn a lot from the successes, and failures, of GK Enchanted farm. 

Thanks for reading! I'll hit ya with another one soon:) 

-Natedogg out 🏾