Daily Prompt: A Plot of Earth

Daily Prompt: A Plot of Earth.

If I could choose the place, it would be somewhere on the island Luzon in the Philippines. We visited the slums in Manila and it was a chock. Often poor people from the countryside come to the big city to work and believe they are going to have more possibilities. They have to live in the slums were houses are often built from construction waste and other residual materials. Poverty is the main reason why people can not get a home and therefore build a house in a slum. Living in the slums is uncertain, insecure and poor. Most residents earn just enough for a small room without essential basic services. There is no electricity, toilet or running water and sewers and garbage is not collected.

Living in a slum is a seperate world. In a slum thousands of people live close together. Often people never leave the district. Children are involved in gangs and girls are often pregnant at their 14th. Violence, abuse and neglect are the order of the day.

Our godchild, Sherlyn, lives in Pandacan. Her house consists of one room. but they were very happy to invite us. The cottage was very poor; there was no furniture and they all slept on the floor: father and mother, 5 children and grandmother. No sheets, no pillows,
nothing! A toilet was clearly not present.

So I would start a housing project. Alll these houses have a separate living area, cooking area and a private bathroom. There is a water pump and electricity. There will be a garden to grow vegetables and fruit, a henhouse with chickens and a stay for pigs and I would create work possibilities..