Diaspora philanthropy - INQ7.net: "Viewpoint : Diaspora philanthropy
First posted 01:04am (Mla time) Mar 30, 2006
By Juan Mercado
Inquirer
Editor's Note: Published on Page A12 of the March 30, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
THEY call it 'diaspora philanthropy' -- efforts by often homesick overseas migrants to support development initiatives in the poverty-strapped homeland they left. And it is innovative -- and it has grown over fivefold in as many years.
Pooled by Filipinos abroad, the gifts, donations and services are different from 'remittances' (funds whittled from pay packets of overseas workers and sent, on a more or less regular basis, to families left behind). They are 'unilateral cash gifts, goods and services.' Some seek to jump-start projects in economically stagnant places the migrants fled from. Others cascade, helter-skelter, into a bewildering range of beneficiaries: schools, hospitals, churches, NGOs, town plazas and emergency relief. Aid for Southern Leyte mudslide victims is only the latest."
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