The fourth in the Seeds of Change series: 20 strategies for systemic change described by members of the Vincentian Family’s Commission for Promoting Systemic Change. Patricia Nava writes:
When less than one per cent of people own the land on which they farm, the community is set up for trouble. Usurers – those who lend money at extortionate rates – and corrupt politicians prey on people. Dreadful living conditions cannot improve, in part because of very limited access to education and healthcare. Community, itself, falls apart as people retreat into private misery.
Change this dismal situation? How? The first step was a realization by the Daughters of Charity that the many different problems had become entrenched for the poor of San José in Occidental Mindoro, Philippines. The “band-aid†approach would bring no lasting change. The strategy: analyze local reality and develop data-based programs that reflect the reality. Read about the strategy and its amazing results.
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