For over 3 billion of the global population of 6.5 billion, poverty is a way of life. It has many faces for those who live amidst its clutches-the two most visible are the faces of hunger and lack of shelter.

Photo above: The community of Isla Verde, in the city of Davao in Mindanao, Philippines, was first set up by the Badjao or sea gypsies in the 1970s. They made a living on the sea fishing, but over the years the coral reefs and mangroves have been destroyed. They remain a proud people but are barely able to support their families, often living on just one meal a day. Habitat for Humanity Philippines will build a new community for the Badjao and set up livelihood programmes, transforming their lives back to what it was before. All Photos Mikel Flamm

An estimated 640 million people live without proper shelter and 1 billion children worldwide, roughly one in two, live in poverty, with over 10 million dying each year before the age of five. Poverty is also the fear of uncertainty, of not knowing when the next meal will come or how to care for a sick child when there is no money to buy medicine. Entire generations live and die with no idea of how or where to seek help, often wondering if anyone would listen anyway to their hardships.

Years ago on a trip to Bangladesh, I met a 13-year-old girl in a small clinic in the capital city of Dhaka with her mother. She was suffering from tuberculosis and third-degree malnutrition, and looked as though she might not make it any longer than a few days. The doctors said there was little hope for her survival, so they sent her home. A few days later, I met a woman who cared for special cases through her organization. I told her of the young girl and she agreed to care for her. Within two months, the girl recovered. Through this case, I learned that there are ways to address poverty: one of them is not to give up hope.

On three recent trips to China, the Philippines and Bangladesh for Habitat for Humanity International, I visited communities, where people lived in dire conditions on very little subsistence. Survival is a day-to-day struggle for them, often with no end in sight.

Shanty communities in Dhaka line the river ways that link the city at various points. Condensed pockets of poor communities rise up and grow until living spaces are confined and overcrowded, and with this condition comes the inability to find work on a frequent basis, as families work on daily labour or construction jobs. One such community within metro Dhaka is Ray's Bazar, a series of small one-room shacks made of bamboo, tin, plastic and thatch. An open sewer follows the length of one side of the community, which consists of four rows of 62 dirt-floor rooms, each measuring 4 by 10 feet. The crowded living conditions, in addition to the lack of sanitation and privacy, are common throughout the poor communities in this city.

With a population of over 138 million, Bangladesh is one of the poorest, most densely populated countries in the world, with roughly 47 per cent living below the poverty level, the majority on less than a dollar a day. Some 250 families live on a day-to-day existence in squalor conditions. Their rules are simple: work to eat and survive as best you can. There is little else to look forward to other than try to stay alive for another day.

Sixteen-year-old Shuli Begum, with her six-month-old son, Shofiq, in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Sixteen-year-old Shuli Begum, holding on to her six-month-old son Shofiq, stands with a group of women (photo at right). With a smile, she agrees to take us to the next pathway where she lives. As children tag along, pushing and shoving to be in front of the group that has grown to nearly thirty, a few curious adults join in as we slowly move along the narrow dirt path. Shuli's room is simple and basic like the others: a single dirt-floor room with a small bamboo bed. Her husband works seven days a week as a rickshaw driver and is able to earn 80 to 90 taka ($1.25-$1.40) a day. They pay 400 taka ($6.25) for their room. Although extremely poor, they have three meals a day, consisting mostly of rice, some vegetables and small pieces of fish. Her cooking is done outside.
"People get sick here a lot. It is noisy here at night as people quarrel and fight too much. The children and the elderly get sick more; common are colds, dysentery, diarrhoea", Shuli says. "My husband is luckier than many here as he has a regular job. So many families here sometimes have no money to buy food. Life is hard here; we live day to day", she adds. "We lived with my husband's family for a while in a community similar to this, but came here several months ago. We have little choice now but to live like this. I have lived poor since I was a young girl. This is our life."

On the island of Mindanao in the southern part of the Philippines, I visited a small fishing village of ethnic minorities called Isla Verde. The majority of the residents are fishermen, known as the Badjao or sea gypsies. A nomadic group, they would go for weeks without touching land, as their lives are devoted to the sea. They build their homes over blackened water on bamboo stilts. More than 20 years ago, they built on Isla Verde and lived there alone, but as time passed, other ethnic groups built alongside their homes until they were boxed in. Over the years, their once prosperous way of life has diminished due to the destruction of the coral beds, overfishing along the coastal regions and government restrictions that limited their ability to fish in nearby waters.

Arasale Salla, a 37-year-old fisherman (photo on next page), says his life is very difficult. His deep brown skin and deep wrinkles show the years of working in the sun. Three families of 12 persons, including 7 children, live in his simple bamboo house. "It has been several months since I have been able to fish. My boat has a hole, so it sits on the shore. I have no money to repair it and do not know when I will be able to. Now I beg in city streets to earn enough money to buy food for the family. We eat very little, usually just once a day." He adds: "I feel that I can never do enough for my family. I am willing to work and miss it when I am not fishing, but for now I have no choice but to beg in order to live."
The Badjao remains a proud group of over 100 families who once relied upon the sea for livelihood. One of the biggest issues in this community is the lack of work. However, once a location has been finalized, Habitat for Humanity will build a new community for them in the coming months, next to the sea and where they can be back on the ocean, away from the poverty they have endured for years.

In Bangladesh, where poverty

Rina Begum and her chicken-raising business

is among the worst in the world, organizations are meeting the challenges of fighting the problem by giving the poor the chance to pull themselves up little by little through savings each day with other families. Rina Begum and her husband Akmal Hussain recently set up a chicken-raising business after their 19-year-old son trained on how to raise poultry. With a loan from a local businessman, they purchased over 400 chicks and within a month were able to sell the chickens. "We have lived very poor all of our lives", says Rina. "Over the years we have learned how to save among our savings group. A little can make a difference if you have a goal and a plan." Microcredit has been a successful venture at giving the poor the chance to make a difference in their lives.

Noraida Hernandez and her small goods business

Savings groups in the community of Baseco, a once dangerous slum community in Metro Manila, Philippines, have begun to turn the tides for the poor. For example, each member of a savings group of 30 was able to set up his/her own small business, such as selling food or household items, and motorcycle taxis. "I have been poor all of my life", says 32-year-old Noraida Hernandez. "I thought that this is how it would always be for my family. But this savings group has changed my way of thinking. A little saved each day by our group adds up; we soon see the difference at what we can do. We save, then we can borrow from this." Noraida saved enough money to set up a small goods business in her house. "Our life is changing. We now have hope, and the children are doing better in school. We know the power of saving for a future now", she says.

Arasale and family members live in his simple bamboo house.

Two years ago, when I first visited a remote village in Yunnan Province in China, I found a community of ethnic Miao group with a population of 42, consisting of seven families, living in unsafe mud houses that were dark and damp. But through a Habitat for Humanity save-and-build programme, they formed savings groups and were able to build a house; then matching funds from Habitat built two more houses, until each family in the village had a house. "We have come a long way in the past two years", says 23-year-old Lu Xinzhen. "We still have a long way to go, but we have learned there is a way out of poverty."