Today, I happened upon an exciting project in Manila, on my way to go see Harry Potter! Approached by a vendor in one of the many malls in Manila, I was introduced to “The Jeepney”—a new street magazine of metro Manila, one of about 200 in the world. After hearing briefly about the project, I was excited about this inventive idea for creating job opportunities and a voice for the poor. I decided to buy a few copies and look more into what street magazines and “The Jeepney” were all about.
Street magazines are sold by homeless or poor individuals and aim to give these individuals both employment opportunities and a voice in their community. Street newspapers/magazines are a means to mobilize the networks of formal and nonformal relationships that exist between the homeless, unemployed, and the working poor, and the shelter managers, healthcare workers, community organizers and others who work on their behalf.
“The Jeepney” is a project of the Urban Opportunities of Change Foundation, Inc. a non-stock non-profit company of the Philippines founded by two Americans. It is the first magazine published to communicate the voice of the poor where all the post investment profits go to the vendors and the socially excluded in Manila. The way that the magazine works is that homeless vendors buy a copy of the magazine at a price 50% lower than the vendor price, and sell it to the public keeping the proceeds. The magazine is sold for 100 pesos, 50 of which the vendor receives, while 25 goes to printing and 25 goes to production costs. The goal is for vendors to sell a minimum of 10 magazines a day to exceed the minimum wage. The requirements for being a vendor are that they have to be currently making less than 
minimum wage, must be a street dweller or squatter, and must by 18 years or older. In addition to providing a job opportunity for the poor, the foundation also provides services for the vendors. These services include, social services arranged specifically to meet the clients complex needs, creation of a savings fund, support groups, seminars on financial management, social and moral reformation from drugs and alcohol and references to health centers which mostly provide free or subsidized medicines.
The articles in the magazine vary, but from the issues that I purchased most of the articles address important issues within the homeless and poor community in Manila, including the life stories of the vendors, written by them. While “The Jeepney” came as a surprise to me, I was really excited about the idea of a street magazine. I had never heard of the concept before, but to me, a magazine such as “The Jeepney” really addresses major issues within the urban areas of Manila. Street dwellers and squatters, make up the base of the socio-economic pyramid. They are the poorest socio-economic group, and make up the largest percentage of the population, however, their voice is often not heard by politicians and officials and they tend to be under-represented within society. “The Jeepney” creates an opportunity for these individuals to express themselves and share their story with the greater Manila community, while giving them employment opportunities to perhaps help lift themselves out of poverty. As long as we have socially conscious individuals, willing to buy street magazines such as “The Jeepney”, I think that this idea is something that we can all learn from and hopefully expand to other cities of the world!
Visit http://www.thejeepney.com/index.html to learn more.
