When Agathiyar told Agathiyar Vanam Malaysia, and its brother-in-arms Thondu Seivom to bring aid to the poor and suffering through Amudha Surabhi, we ventured to do as told without question. Although it brought us together in service to the less fortunate, and brought joy in getting an opportunity to extend help, but in reality we were saddened to see numerous homeless people on the streets and many abandoned people in the charity homes. Those on the streets need to be taken off the streets and given a proper home while those in the homes need to go back to their family and next of kin. Those on the streets need to be placed in new homes. New homes need to be built. The facilities in existing homes need to be increased multi-fold. But this is not possible by an individual effort or an organisation. These needs a strong will power at the level of policy-making and extensive funds. The only machinery capable of carrying out something of this nature is the ruling government of the day. But we do not see that happening, instead these people on the streets still rely on handouts from charitable individuals and organisations. We have seen these conditions exists in third world countries and are surprised to see it in the modern metropolitan cities too.
In "Journey Through the Heartland", photographer Matt Black travels across America from coast to coast, visiting more than 70 cities and towns, documenting the struggles and triumphs of America’s impoverished communities in a project called The Geography of Poverty at http://www.msnbc.com/interactives/geography-of-poverty/index.html
We read the grim stories of common people who not able to provide their family the basics, have no where to go and finally out of desperation hit the pavements, five foot ways, and stay under the bridges etc, placing and leaving their children and babies unsupervised and in extreme danger.
But then again placing those on the streets in new homes would cleanse the streets of the homeless, solving the issue temporarily, till others turn up on the streets. This will keep going on and on. Programs to help them has not brought the expected results too.
In "Journey Through the Heartland", photographer Matt Black travels across America from coast to coast, visiting more than 70 cities and towns, documenting the struggles and triumphs of America’s impoverished communities in a project called The Geography of Poverty at http://www.msnbc.com/interactives/geography-of-poverty/index.html
We read the grim stories of common people who not able to provide their family the basics, have no where to go and finally out of desperation hit the pavements, five foot ways, and stay under the bridges etc, placing and leaving their children and babies unsupervised and in extreme danger.
But then again placing those on the streets in new homes would cleanse the streets of the homeless, solving the issue temporarily, till others turn up on the streets. This will keep going on and on. Programs to help them has not brought the expected results too.
Historian Rutger Bregman proposes that we go 500 years back to adopt an idea to eradicate poverty.