Smokey Mountain: Alleviating poverty with technology's help

Smokey Mountain

Alleviating poverty with technology’s help

Text and photos by MARICEL E. ESTAVILLO, Reporter

Finding that his family has run out of its supply of rice, Nestor Santos (not his real name) pulled out a cellular phone from his pocket, keyed in the order and promptly sent it via short message service (SMS) -- better known in the Philippines simply as "texting" -- to his order taker.

A few hours later, the ordered sack of rice to be shared by Nestor and his neighbors arrived.

Orders (via SMS), anyone?

This account may sound like just another technology-assisted lifestyle story, except for the fact that Nestor collects garbage for a living, and lives in a former dumpsite that still has a huge mound of compacted decades-old filth -- and a much-reduced stench outsiders still find overpowering -- to remind residents of their even sorrier past.

As before, he and his family of six live by the day. They are just one of the 2,520 families eking out a living of sorts in Smokey Mountain -- a huge slum located in Tondo in western Metro Manila that gained international notoriety from the ’70s to early ’90s as a blatant symptom of something terribly wrong with the way the country has been run by various administrations.

Transformed into a low-cost housing area for poor families in the mid-’90s during the Ramos Administration, Smokey Mountain still has a mountain of garbage -- and the pervasive smell -- to show what it used to be.

Today, 21 buildings brimming with families sorround the three-storey-high garbage hill, on which they used to build their shanties.

And for Nestor’s family of six, some things never change -- like having to live on just a kilogram of rice for an entire day, and to contend with a cloud of noxious gases from the garbage mount that can blanket the entire community.

A mountain of garbage on which they used to live

This time, however, there is one glaring difference: these impoverished families have started using technology to get by each day on slightly better terms.

Using a simple GSM cellular phone to buy basic goods like rice, cooking oil, dried fish and detergent, their order takers-cum-purchasing coordinators haggle for the lowest price among factories and wholesale suppliers in Bulacan just north of Metro Manila, as well as in Pampanga and Bataan, Central Luzon.

"Today, we paid P22 [for a kilo of rice]; yesterday, it was P21," Nestor sighed, speaking in Tagalog.

But an order taker said they hope for better prices as they build up the pool of accredited suppliers.

The system is supposed to give residents a better price for their basic needs, without the sometimes-exorbitant charges imposed by middlemen and retail stores.

And to entice residents to course their purchases through the system, each buyer is entitled to a a 10% rebate per transaction -- a choice between cash and goods.

Order takers earn by slapping a modest mark up on the price of the goods. For every sack of rice, for instance, there is a P50 mark up, from which order takers get 30%, while the remaining 70% is alloted for the system’s operating fund.

Community volunteers pack a kilogram of rice for each ordering household

Before the organization of the SMS-based purchasing system, some of the order takers had already been running similar businesses at a much smaller scale, using their own money to buy goods from nearby stores and peddling them in the community.

Rolled out just last February, the concept of sourcing basic goods through texting was conceptualized by the community’s parish priest, Fr. Benigno Beltran -- called Fr. Ben by parishioners.

There are now 61 volunteers, composed of order takers and those who man a computer-equipped office that records transactions. There is an average of four order takers per building whose task is to jot down families’ daily orders.

Most of the voluteers were handpicked by Fr. Ben, said church volunteer Samuel J. Yap in a separate interview.

Fr. Ben has worked in Smokey Mountain for about 25 years now, starting in those days when residents had to cover their noses in order to eat, Mr. Yap recalled.

FROM SMS TO THE NET

To be sure, the system will not be limited to SMS for long.

Soon, the community will be able to use networked computers to reach out to surrounding impoverished communities, estimated at 6,000 families, Fr. Ben said. Already, 40 of the 400 families in Sitio Sto. Niño, and 30 of the 300 families in Sitio Puting Bato have adopted the same system.

Fr. Ben

Fr. Ben said order takers have complained that the increasing volume of transactions has become too unwieldly for an SMS-based system, hence, the need to graduate to a computerized one.

Early this year, Smokey Mountain got a P4-million grant from the Taiwan government both to facilitate mass ordering of basic goods and to enable business-minded families to use the internet to reach out to potential buyers.

The grant was packaged under the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation’s Digital Opportunity Center Program, which pushes the use of information technology for community-building.

Within this year, 24 internet-enabled computers provided under this grant will enable families to look for buyers of community products like handmade soap.

Volunteers, including more order takers, who will support expanded operations are now learning Excel and Word every Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Fr. Ben visits the office where transactions are recorded

Fr. Ben had even proposed the construction of what he calls an "e-church" that is being built inside the Smokey Mountain area. If Fr. Ben’s plans were to push through, the church will use coco diesel for electricity and will also be a Wi-Fi hotspot to support the community’s envisioned e-trading activities.

Mr. Yap said several network service providers have acknowledged the merit and novelty of the entire system, that they have offered their services at big discounts.

EXPANSION

Fr. Ben said that if the plan proves feasible, Manila Archbishop Gaudencio B. Rosales and other bishops are interested in propagating the system among urban poor communities nationwide.

Fr. Ben and Mr. Yap are now working on a project, called Sambayanang Kristiyano E-Trading Network (SKETRAN), where Mr. Yap is the project manager.

SKETRAN is e-trading at a bigger scale. Instead of mobile phones, it will use networked computers to list the orders and send to the suppliers via electronic mail.

Brand-new PCs

"SKETRAN endeavors to establish networked communities of Faith in economic action wherein the spiritual and economic dimensions are seamless integrated for the spiritual and material benefit of the individual and his community," the SKETRAN concept paper read.

"The common mistake in past apostolates and economic endeavors was to treat these two spheres as if they were separate and different. That resulted in the fragmented human condition which largely obtains the in the world today. The historical trend, as it were, was to save souls, and never mind the bodies; or to save bodies, and never mind the souls -- with one’s spiritual and religious life totally distinct and separate from one’s economic and professional life," it noted.

According to the plan, SKETRAN, which will reach out to the country’s 100 diocesses, will be a corporation registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The corporation will then be managed by representatives from various diocesan cooperatives. Upon roll-out, each of the 100 diocesses will set up warehouse managed by a cooperative.

TOWARDS eTRADING

"In the typical market economy of the Philippines, the distribution system and commodity flow are convoluted and elaborate, passing through many levels and channels [distributors, wholesalers, retailers, and sari-sari stores], resulting in relatively high prices to the consumers and spoilage of the produce," the SKETRAN plan noted further.

Even this church will hopefully go Wi-Fi

Moreover, the church is also looking at prodding each community to produce goods with high demand in the market to "lessen dependence on multinational products and save precious currency for the economy."

At the parish level, SKETRAN will identify and train sari-sari store owners or small retail stores and order takers; identify goods most in demand by residents, as well as goods they can provide to markets outside their communities..

At the diocesan level, SKETRAN will put up cooperatives which will own the warehouse in which goods for sale to residents and goods for sale from the residents will be stored. Members will be the parish priests, representatives from the parish pastoral councils, as well as store owners and order takers.

As a corporation, SKETRAN will own the business software and processes developed for the warehouses and will establish a network of suppliers and manufacturers to supply the goods and services.

Proponents are targeting to launch SKETRAN within this year. Roughly P2.3 million is needed to jump-start the plan, Mr. Yap said.