CHARITY SUPERMARKET

If have not heard of a charity supermarket yet, you will soon see one here in the Philippines, as it is now taking shape. Conceptually, a charity supermarket is a place or a facility where anyone could donate anything to any charity at any time, from anywhere. Aside from accepting donations, the supermarket could also sell products made by charitable projects; it could support the membership drives of charitable organizations and sponsor their activities on a regular basis.

**

Starting with a few clients and using my radio program as a launching pad, I have already formed the nucleus of the charity supermarket, with the support of two donor groups. Just my luck, I bumped into a good friend, Atty. Mitch Lopez who was in Manila for a few days, visiting from California. Mitch leads a group of young Filipino professionals in the United States who have decided to set aside a portion of their income for charitable projects in the Philippines, in the form of tax-deductible donations. As agreed with Mitch, he will course all of their donations to the charity supermarket.

**

Together with other investors, I formed OnePhilippines, Corp., a service provider of communications services. Thanks to Mr. Dixy Tudla, the General Manager of OnePhil, any charitable organization in the Philippines that is a client of the charity supermarket will be qualified to receive 1dollar for every OnePhil card sold. The main product of OnePhil is an unlimited international phone card that sells for 100 dollars. The card could be used by anybody to call anyone from anywhere to anywhere in the world, with no extra charges other than the fixed selling price. OnePhil customers will be asked to choose from a list of beneficiaries where they would want the 1 dollar donation to go.

**

Thanks to my partner Ramon Ignacio, the charity supermarket will soon have a presence in the Internet, supplementing what I am already doing on the air via radio. Functionally however, the mechanics will be the same, since anyone using the Internet will eventually be able to donate anything to any beneficiary in the Philippines, plus do all the other extra functions and activities that I have earlier mentioned.

**

As of now, the list of charity supermarket clients include the OFW Family Club, Advancement of Worker’s Awareness Regarding Employment (AWARE), Multinational Drivers Cooperative Foundation, the Conflict Resolution Group Foundation (CORE), the Advocacy for Science & Technology in Governance (ASTIG), the Philippine Blind Union (PBU), Alyansa ng May Kapansanang Pinoy (AKAPPINOY), the Philippine Foundation for Science & Technology (PFST), the Migrant NGO Forum and the Alliance for National Development and Renewal (ANDAR). All charitable organizations in the Philippines are qualified to join.

**

For the lack of a better term, I am actually just using “charity” in a loose sense, because other than charitable causes, the foundations could engage in any activity such as developmental, social and cultural. As I see it, the bulk of clients will come from the foundations that are engaged in delivering human development basic needs (HDBN) such as livelihood, food security, health services and public education. HDBN is a conceptual approach that I am now trying to define; combining ideas from the minimum basic needs (MBN) approach, the eleven basic needs (11-BN) approach of the former Ministry of Human Settlements (MHS) and the human security approach of the United Nations.

**

During the term of Sec. Marietta Goco as Chairman of the Presidential Commission to Fight Poverty (PCFP), I had the chance to assist in the development of the MBN Database, a project that is partly supported by the World Bank. Since then however, nothing seems to be happening in the management of the basic needs challenge in the Philippines. Appearing to be a sign of hope, the Makati City Government has developed a Barangay Management Operations System (BMOS) that is equipped with basic needs features.

**

It seems that right now, there is a problem of donor fatigue in the country, as many donors are “burned” with poor results and misused funds. I think that the solution to that is to have a third party audit and a regular reporting system. Aside from that, what is needed is a professional service that would make it easy for anyone to donate cash or kind to the Philippines. This is what I hope to do with the charity supermarket. If you know more people like Mitch and Dixy, please let me know.