JP/xx/US1

Building a civil society, American-style

The U.S. State Department's Foreign Press Center and the Meridian International Center, an international cultural exchange institution, invited 10 Indonesian journalists to the U.S. in late September to learn about civil society and volunteering. The Jakarta Post's Ivy Susanti took part in the two-week program, which is part of a U.S. public diplomacy effort. Her report follows:

The American dream has perhaps remained a unattainable goal, not to immigrant workers, but more often to American citizens.

Against the backdrop of skyscrapers dotted along Washington D.C. and New York City streets are homeless people, drifting among those with money in slick business suits rushing to catch the next bus or train to work.

Though they do not make a marketable Hollywood storyline, the homeless are real people who pose a real problem -- and real shame -- to the United States.

It does not need to take a hurricane to reveal America's most disadvantaged people -- just take a walk in the capital city and you meet many homeless people, often African Americans, roaming the streets leading to the White House. Sixty percent of the District of Columbia's population of 550,000 are African Americans.

For successful immigrants, America provides the opportunity of a lifetime.

Dr. Mazzen Sabbaq, a Syrian-born physician has a doctorate from New York University's School of Medicine. After a few stints in the U.S. following graduation, he decided to apply for U.S. citizenship, because he was confident he could contribute something to America.

"In Syria, physicians don't have much opportunity. They can't get the best out of their education," Sabbaq said. "By (me) being here, people can learn about Syria. They would understand that terrorists are a tiny minority there."

Mazzen said he had never been mistreated by Americans, although as Muslims, his wife and sisters wear head scarves. "I never feel that I get less from a different country. People here never care where I come from, as long as I have the necessary credentials."

The success stories of these doctors, who represent the cream of society, as a foreign press center staffer said, was in stark contrast with the reality for others on the ground.

The three cities on our itinerary -- Washington, New York and Tucson -- are among 70 centers in the United States that have people living below the poverty line. The U.S. Census Bureau's 2004 American Community Survey shows that 20.3 percent of residents in the city of New York fall into this category, whereas in Tucson it is 19.5 percent and Washington DC 18.9 percent.

According to the census bureau's poverty threshold, a single person at productive age -- below 65 years old -- has to earn less than US$9,827 annually -- or about $819 a month -- to qualify as impoverished. For a family of five with three children under 18, the income cutoff is set at $22,543.

The poverty threshold was widely criticized for being an inaccurate measure to define poverty, especially because it excludes non-cash income like food stamps.

In civil societies like the United States when the government does not provide many welfare programs for the lowest level of society, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) step in and care for the underprivileged and disadvantaged. These grassroots organizations may be critical of the government but many of them that we encountered were willing to get their hands dirty doing the jobs the government was not doing.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness, a nonprofit organization based in Washington DC, was established in 1983 when a group of concerned citizens saw the surge of homeless people on the streets. The organization gets funding from private or corporate contributions.

Alliance president Nan P. Roman said the lack of affordable housing was the primary cause of homelessness.

Over 12 million low-income individuals and 5.4 million families across the nation spent some 50 percent of their income on housing, leaving little to pay for their basic needs, the Alliance said.

"Income and housing go hand in hand. You can work but still be homeless," Roman said.

She defined the homeless as people who had nowhere to live nor other means to sustain life. The homeless also often have mental health problems and need more public services.

The homeless were mostly Americans, because immigrants had emergency systems available for them from the federal government, regardless of their legal status.

The Alliance's short term program was to get homeless people into shelters, however, the movement has set a goal to end homelessness by 2010. The Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness outreach campaign urges communities to develop databases of homeless people, to build a system to prevent homelessness, to provide low-income housing services and jobs through an employment service.

A number of nonprofit institutions -- some of which are religion-based -- are set up to deal with people with substance- abuse problems and victims of domestic violence.

The Harbor Light Center in Washington D.C. is an adult rehabilitation center that belongs to the Salvation Army, an evangelical part of the Methodist church. The center provides a comprehensive, six-month residential treatment program for drug addicts.

The center's clients are primarily homeless who have limited or no access to other treatment programs.

Major Douglas Browning, the center executive director, said the center was funded through government contracts, aside from private donations. Clients are recommended by prison institutions.

Here they are taught to discipline themselves -- they have to clean up their own living space, attend classes and counseling and be punctual. From time to time, the clients have to undergo drug tests. The program ends after 90 days.

Though it is affiliated with Christianity, Browning said that everyone was free to practice their own religion or belief.