(EID-029) “FIGHTING FIVE EVILS”

There are many socio-economic problems present in the Philippines now as a developing country, but having to choose its battles, the United National Integrated Development Alliance (UNIDA) has decided to fight the five biggest evils namely poverty, sickness, hunger, criminality and illiteracy.

Fighting these five evils is one thing, but the more important thing is to bring in the solutions for these problems, namely shelter, health, agriculture, peace & order and education or SHAPE for short.

There is certainly more to poverty than homelessness alone, but shelter is definitely as good start, since housing costs account for one of the biggest expenses of all families. Besides that, UNIDA sees the potential of neighborhoods working together to fight poverty.

Since the SHAPE approach has been defined, the leadership of the shelter program has been assigned to the Inter-Charity Network (ICN), a founding member of UNIDA.

We are still in the process of establishing the United National Health Association (UNAHEALTH) to lead the health program of UNIDA, but the new dynamic electronic forms (DEF) technology obtained by alliance could fast track the organization, since the technology has a strong appeal to hospitals and clinics.

The ICN has also recently decided to spin off its SAMA-KABUHAYAN project into an independent organization, thus enabling it now to lead the agriculture program of UNIDA as a full pledged member organization.

As planned, the Citizen’s Foundation for the Prevention of Crime & Injustice (CFPCI) will lead the peace & order program of UNIDA. The good news is that the DEF technology will also appeal strongly to police stations and court houses.

As planned as well, the University Consortium for Resource Networking (UNICORN) will lead the education program of UNIDA. There is also good news that the DEF technology will appeal strongly to universities and schools.

While the issue of corruption has caught the attention of the entire country now, UNIDA maintains the advocacy that graft and corruption are crimes that should be fought along with the other four evils of our society.