A ranking prelate of the Church suggested that, instead of putting on gloomy faces during Lent and the rest of the year, we all wear joyful smiles and put on an attitude in line with the Holy Father’s desire for us to undertake lives full of mercy and compassion. We are encouraged to give of ourselves and our resources in meaningful ways, with the objective of helping the less fortunate, and without seeking anything in return.
Before I left to join government for the first time, I left a blueprint for an idea that was influenced by my many brushes with the less fortunate in society. The idea was to adopt a downtrodden barangay or town, and embrace its residents and their cares, needs and daily worries. Then, fashion programs and projects that would help the residents and their many children…ranging from health, education and livelihood to providing markets for products we would help them produce and so forth. In so doing, one helps uplift an entire community. The rub would be for the proponent, namely, our corporate institution, to train the adopted barangay or town to become a catalyst for the next unit to be adopted.
Well, the concept was embraced by our institution and, in the process, won a Grand Anvil for the bank I was with. But now…what? The concept, to be truly successful, has to be long term in nature, possess a spirit of continuity, and able to replicate itself or with help in new mission areas. Unfortunately, a lot of corporate giving does not look to the longer term. On the other hand, I have seen how some really driven corporate people have transformed themselves into “missionaries” seeking to improve the situation and lives of the marginalized.
Someone said that if all individuals and corporations were to heed the biblical admonition to give 10 percent of revenues (am not sure if the good Lord meant gross or net), poverty would be erased throughout the world. I do not have the figures to support this but can hazard a guess that the Good Book and our Lord must know what is beneficial for all of us.
Perhaps, given the potential of the great number of Filipinos just waiting for their talent to be put to good use, it may be time really to explore meaningful ways to give and share that will impact the longer term, rather than end up as just a footnote in corporate PR. This great number of Filipinos, when properly educated and empowered, will, in turn, become a very profitable market for corporate goods and services. But we have to start somewhere.