Struggles Of Poverty

    'Sad Little House' by Amparo R. Asuncion is a poem that talks about the life of people who are underprivileged or those who live in a poverty.  This poem is indeed relatable due to the fact that poverty is a social issue. Meaning, It is relevant nowadays. The cost of living, scarcity of food, and losing houses to natural disasters are the major causes of poverty. Further, It will affect one's way of living on an everyday basis. this essay discusses the struggle of people in the Philippines who were living inside indigence. Moreover, It deals with expounding the idea of the said poem such as losing a home and factors of poverty.

    The poem describes the tragic event of losing a home and needing to survive without anything. This become a social issue especially in the Philippines due to the fact 27% of the whole population in the Philippines are families who were homeless and have nothing to feed according to Rappler (2022). Facing this reality where there are many people struggling. Unfortunately, the government of the Republic of the Philippines cannot help these people due to the low budget and the low income that they give to people. Although there might be programs that redistribute lands and build houses, It's still not enough to provide for the whole population who were in need.

    Other than low income and low budget for building houses. Natural disasters such as typhoons, earthquakes, and tsunamis are also one of major causes of losing their home. For example, The Philippines were hit by Typhoon Yolanda and more than 600,000 people were left homeless as a result of the over 6,000 deaths and over 1 million damaged properties including houses. This only proves that natural disasters have also impacted people who have apparently lost their homes and begun to struggle in life due to having a hard time finding their new homes and preparing themselves to start over again. Just like in the poem, the houses were smothered with dust and completely forgotten with aching hearts.

    Next, Food scarcity is one of the key ideas of the poem. It deals with people who were experiencing starvation in poverty. This becomes a factor in poverty because of the lack of food resources in the everyday life of underprivileged people. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 48 million people in the Philippines had moderate or severe food insecurity between 2019 and 2021, compared to the 5.3 million who were seriously food insecure due to poverty. Without a doubt, This is alarming and needs to solve immediately by government officials. 

    To summarize everything I stated, the poem is indeed phenomenological and still a societal issue that is currently existing in the Philippines. The amount of budget to build houses, natural disasters affecting the houses and people, and food scarcity which are the factors of poverty. Overall, these experiences will always hunt people because It is traumatic and depressing that people have to go through such pain that they will never be able to forget whether we force it to forget. Although, among all of these tragic events that some come across, we will find peace and prosperity someday soon in life.

- MONO