A Profile of a Slum Community?

• We need to research and develop a profile of the slum community we are planning to work in

• The information is best collected from informal observation and conversations with slum dwellers

• Avoid using a questionaire and surveys – they raise expectations among slum dwellers

• Ascertain, population, family details, main occupations, income, services available, resources, etc

What income generating projects can come from this slum?

• Ask the inhabitants what income generating ideas they have?

• This will also help locate the entrepreneurs in the community?

• Ascertain what capital is needed to start these projects?

Here is an example

• From Manila, the Capital City of the Philippines – this slum settlement is the famous Payatas B rubbish tip

slum 12 km from the Central Business District.

A Picture of the Payatas Rubbish Tip in Manila

A Profile

• 150,000 inhabitants in Payatas B Settlement

• 20,000 families• 10,000 scavengers

working everyday from 6am to 5pm

• Earn Pesos 2,000/mth = US$44

• Many scavengers are addicts on Methamphetamine

Exploitation of the Poor!

• 500 trucks per day enter Payatas tip

• Each truck is charged 350 Pesos to unload

• Gangs control who gets to scavenge in the tip

• The scavengers have to bribe the gangs to be able to scavenge

• Where is the justice for the poor?

• The Municipality may have to move the tip?

Can anything good come out of a place like this?

• 80% is recyclable• Plastic bags are

washed in the nearby creek, and baled for reprocessing

• Tyres are used to make sandals

• Food scraps can feed pigs and make worms

• All metals, glass and plastics can be sold

• Kids whose parents are drug addicts can collect rubbish and sell it to get money for food

• The smell of the rubbish tip is overwhelming

• Sometimes rubber and plastic is burned

• There is plenty of food waste

Resources?

• There is a water and good electricity supply

• There are several pre-schools and schools in the Payatas B settlement

• There is a concrete road two thirds of the way into the settlement

• There are many types of transport readily available for hire

• Many women have no work

• There are hundreds of young men looking for work

• There are internet Café’s in the slum at very reasonable prices

• A major market is close by

• Most slum dwellers have unused land around there houses – up to 600m2

• The land is fertile and the climate is very good

20 pastors and leaders train to help the poor in Payatas

• 20 passed the week long training course

• Three new income generating cooperatives were birthed.

• They will employ 80 people directly and provide an extra 6,000 – 8,000 Pesos per month to 80 families.

How much capital is required to fund these new projects?

• US$150 to help another squatter family start a pig raising farm.

• NZ$US110 to help a poor family start a duck raising farm.

• Donate US$375 to start a sandal making cooperative

This information was gathered in

• One week living in the slum community

• Three entrepreneurs were located who were ready to implement the three cooperatives

• The pastor knew a person who was ready to fund these cooperatives

What can you do in the slum you are praying for?

• People are waiting for you to help them, bring them hope

• God is wanting to help you – their needs are a burden on His heart

• Pray, build relationships, research, organise, act, and see what God will do.