I STARTED a new messenger group in Facebook. It’s called Central Charity Coordinator or C3 for short.
My idea is very simple. C3 will be a meeting place or a clearing house between and among benefactors and beneficiaries of charity. Between the givers and the receivers of charity.
Over the years, I have observed that indeed, there are many persons and organizations that give charity. There are also many persons and organizations that could receive charity, but more often than not, they do not know each other, and there is usually no place for them to meet and to “transact”.
That is where C3 would come in. Although this virtual “exchange” is not a commercial activity, it will in effect become a “marketplace” not only of ideas and plans, but also of goods and services.
The bottom line here is really information, meaning getting and giving information about what could be taken and what could be given.
More often than not, what could be “taken” is there already, but not everyone knows where to get it, and how to get it. As a matter of fact, the information may already be in the websites of the “givers”, but it takes a certain skill to find it.
I am willing to be the one to find it. As Fr. Rocky Evangelista once told me, we should not be ashamed to beg, for as long as we are begging for the Lord and for God’s people. That is why I am willing to be the finder of what needy people need, and if necessary, I am also willing to become the beggar.
DEDICATED BINS FOR CANS AND BOTTLES
Despite many attempts to recycle used cans and bottles, many of these waste materials would still end up in the streets, the dumpsites, the landfills, the rivers, the lakes, the seas and the oceans.
One reason for this is the lack of financial incentives for those who could collect these waste materials.
One idea is to require barangays and village associations to put up dedicated bins for the collection of used cans and bottles and provide them with financial incentives in doing so. The income derived could be used barangays and village associations to fund any social or developmental project of their choice, or they could give rewards to participating households in the form of cash or other items of value.
Even if some households are already segregating their used cans and bottles, these recyclables always end up in the piles of unsegregated garbage, because there is only one type of garbage truck that collects everything, segregated or not. Barangay councils and village boards would always complain that they have no budget to fund their development projects, and yet, they may not be aware that they have a steady source of valuable recyclables that they could collect and sell.
An enterprising businessman, Mr. Jorge Malig has come up with a good design, using a 20-foot container van cut in half. When already full of recycled cans and bottles, it could be carted away to the junk shop./PN
