In reviewing the definition of Human Resource Management I was reminded of the following paper that i wrote for one of my classes. My WORLD is helping the pople in the philippines and that influences my behavior, attitudes, and performance. This topic is something that I might choose to write my final paper on for my Human Resource Class. I hope you like it!
We sat Indian style on their cement floor. The humidity beat upon us and left sweat running from our forehead. They sat across the small room intrigued by me, an American, who had a nice watch, neck tie, and shiny shoes. Jackie and Ray Mark looked close and never took their eyes off of me. At their young age, four and five years old, their concentration level was high, so high that they didn’t notice the flies that had gathered on the opened wounds on their legs. They had no shoes and their oversized dirty t-shirt was the only thing they were wearing. An occasional drip from the whole in the roof would land on the floor as mice ran in and out of their curtain that was acting as a front door. Occasionally my mind would drift as I questioned if this was a real situation or not. Hoping that I was dreaming I would usually snap back into it as a gust of wind blew a horrible smell my direction from the trash invested river outside their home. In this moment, and many others, I was setting with a family who the world would classify as “poverty stricken.” Seeing families in conditions like this sunk deep into my heart while in the Philippines. I learned their language, eat their type of food, and wore their type of clothes. I was completely emerged in their culture therefore gaining a deeper realization that a simple vacation would not give. The realization that I came to was that the Filipino people needed my help to fight poverty. I wanted to do something for these children who had nothing, whose bellies were empty, and bodies not taken care of.
What is stopping the Philippines from progressing out of the poverty stricken country that it is and is there anything I can do to help? The beautiful country of the Philippines offers warm tropical waters, some of the best coral gardens in the world, and wonderful marine life. Inland, the rich history and culture of the Filipino people, the dramatic landscapes and thriving cities would fascinate a visitor. Along with high levels of beauty and wonder the amazing country of the Philippines can’t seem to pull its self from a country’s consistent poverty and the country’s debt.
The Australian Government has a federally funded aid program that helps reduce poverty in developing countries. While searching for a country that fits in the category of developing they came to find that poverty is a significant problem and it poses a serious threat to stability in the Philippines. Their statistics found that, “In 2006, almost 27.6 million people lived below the Philippines' poverty threshold. This represents 26.9 percent of Philippine families and 32.9 percent of the population. According to international data, 44 percent of the population subsisted on US$2 or less a day. Recent food price increases are estimated to push another 2.7 million people into poverty.” With numbers that high Australian Government can’t solve the problem alone. Nor could they do it with the help of other countries. If 27.6 million Filipinos need to overcome the poverty threshold, help from inside the country will be needed. A stereotype has been set by many Filipinos that life is hard and nothing can be done about it. Thus, stopping the help from within that can ultimately lower the percent of those suffering from poverty.
When I returned home from the Philippines I started pondering what could be done to help the Filipino people. This is where the organization Philippine Improvement Group (P.I.G.) was born. The group was made up of a couple of friends who had similar Filipino experiences. In May of 2009 P.I.G. was able to return to the Philippines and replace over fifty desks for a small, run-down school on the least developed island of the Philippines, Occidental Mindoro. This sparked an amazing reaction from all those that were involved and has increased our desire to serve. We set a goal to return this year, May 2010, with hopes to do an even bigger project. Early this month P.I.G. was grandfathered into an already exciting 501(c)3 charitable organization entitled Vaccines for the Philippines, designed to improve the quality of life for the poor people of the Philippines. Over the last six years our new organization has spent nearly $200,000 on improvement projects and is ready to expand. We are now helping them move into the northern areas of the Philippines, where Occidental Mindoro is found and other areas in need of help. Joining Vaccines for the Philippines has opened many doors and will allow us to help the Philippines in a bigger, better way. Our prospective projects for 2010 include: replacing more desks in an elementary school, performing basic maintenance on an orphanage in Quezon City, and working with patients who have undergone surgery for cleft palette, hare lip, and club foot disorders.
My dream to return and help with poverty in the Philippines is starting to become a reality. While starting this cross culture business I have had the chance to reflect upon my own culture constructs and personality traits. I was born and raised in the small central Utah town of Richfield. I graduated from a small class of only 150 where I didn’t have much interaction with other cultures. When I came to learn of my assignment in the Philippines I wasn’t even sure where it was located geographically and couldn’t pronounce the language that I would be speaking, Tagalog. I heard culture shock being often talked about, but had no idea the level of shock that I would go through as I left my small town and flew around to the other side of the world to Manila Philippines, population 11 million. Because of my small town life I didn’t have much cultural constructs going in to the Philippines. The small town life however prepared my personality traits to mach very well with the Filipino people. We don’t by any many have the exact personality traits but I saw how my personality meshed very well with the Filipino people. If I were to describe myself I would say that I am; nice, non-confrontational, relaxed, and organized. Obviously there are no two personalities a like but some of the common personality traits that I see in the Filipinos are; nice, non-confrontational, super relaxed, and un-organized. Now those are just things that I observed and is not necessarily the case for every Filipino. If you notice the personality traits of a Filipino and my personality traits go very well together except for that last one, organization. This has been a problem with our non-profit business organization. Notice the word “non-profit organization.” Because the Filipino people are so relaxed and laid back trying to be organized is difficult. P.I.G.’s last trip to the Philippines backs up my statement here. We called, e-mailed, and even tried snail mail in order to communicate with a small school where we wanted to build desks. They had done as much as tell us their need for more desks but that’s about all the communication we got out of them. We arrived on the island ready to build but came to the realization that everyone we assigned to help had forgotten or otherwise misunderstood what was going to happen. Come to find out the materials for the school desks had not been ordered and schools principle was unaware of what was going on. Fortunately, when our group arrived we able to use our personality traits of organization to get everything accomplished. In preparation to return this year we have done much more to ensure organization with our Filipino contacts. We have found that telephone calls have been less effective so we have almost scratched that completely. We started making plans for this May 2010 in September of 2009. We have also adapted polite, direct, commitments to our Filipino contacts, such as, “Will you order the school desk materials by Saturday and e-mail me as soon as you do?” I know that I must adjust my business approach and personality traits to be successful in the Philippines.
I am so pleased to say that through P.I.G. (our non-profit organization) I have been able to, and looks forward to, helping with poverty in the Philippines. However small the help I know that a difference is being made. I know it’s a far out goal but some day I hope to bring my children to the Philippines and they look at the great things the country has to offer instead of the poverty state that it is in. I would like to bring out the natural highlights the country is made up of and slowly bring people above the poverty threshold line. If I want to accomplish these goals I have to remember to adjust my business approach and personality traits to highlight those of the Filipino people.
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