Comm: "If you want to borrow money to buy or improve your home, you must be credit-worthy. For the hundreds of millions who live in the shantytowns borrowing is out of the question. But as we find out in the latest edition of Street-wise, change is afoot. We follow four people who tell us the stories of their communities and see how innovative savings and credit schemes are helping them improve their homes and the environment.

"Let's hope those attending the UN Conference in New York listen.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

"Years of civil war has left Cambodia with little infrastructure and a shattered economy. Over a third of the country must survive on less than a dollar a day. To the poor in the countryside, getting a job in the capital is seen as an escape route from their hardship. All too often they find a new kind of hardship. But there is hope and its coming not so much from the ground up as from the roof down. Phnom Penh is so crowded that the poor find shelter in the rooftops."

Thorn Chanta, Solidarity for the Urban Poor Federation: "This is the stairway up to my house.

"It's not that we Cambodians like to live on rooftops like this. By the time you've climbed up it's very tiring - but because we're poor and have come from the country, we make use of land anywhere, we wouldn't live like this if we were rich!

"I have six brothers and sisters, five sisters and one brother plus my mother and father. So, in all there are eight people living in our house. We came here in 1990, before that we lived at kandal market. We moved from there in 1988 to the old cinema building, then in 1990, we came here.

"After we came here, we heard the government wanted to evict us because we are squatters and our housing is illegal. When we came here, no one told us it was illegal, but one month later, we heard we were to be movedbut so far, no one has been evicted.

"I really want to move, but only to a place close to town. If we live outside the city, we are far from the business centre. Like the place called Tuol Rokakor, it's far from businesses, schools and hospitals. We work in the city, so how could we work there? We cannot move to the outskirts of the city."

Comm: "Thorn Chanta is a member of Solidarity for the Urban Poor Federation which is developing new ways to provide water, sanitation and new housing through savings schemes."

Thorn Chanta: "Come with me these streets were all built by us, we collected money and built them ourselves. There's no rubbish collection here, yesterday, it wasn't this dirty.

"This is the waterway system that's the sewage pipe.

"Here, they're making jewellery."

Comm: "Each family tries to put by about a dollar a week. It may not seem much, but when it goes into a co-operative fund its enough to make the community credit worthy. The rooftop dwellers can get loans for emergencies as well as longer term improvements to their accomodation."

Thorn Chanta: "Wow! You're really fat now! How come you're so fat, you look like your father!

"Sure, because father and son should be the same!

"People live under the stairs...

"We collect and save money and then use that to make water pipes and toilets and convince people to join together. Before we created the federation of savings groups, we didn't know or understand each other, we only knew our immediate neighbours. Now we know a lot more."

Comm: "It's beginning to have a knock on effect. With the savings groups pooling their funds under the umbrella of the Federation, alliances have been made with other with other local savings schemes. The result is the creation of the Urban Poor Development Fund. They don't want it to end there. The poor have demonstrated they are a sound investment and they believe its high time the government - with its access to foreign aid - should be channelling funds through their savings and loan structure."

Thorn Chanta: "On behalf of my savings group, and a a representative of the poor people in this city, I want to appeal to NGO's and the international community to understand the poor, to find suitable places and houses for our people.

"My personal dream is that I will have a brick house, not a wooden one. I've been to other communities and they have brick houses, we don't have that. I hope one day I'll have a better standard of living, a house and a place to keep animals in the country."

Durban, South Africa

Comm: "When the ANC came to power in 1994 'homes for all' was a key election promise. Several years later the housing crisis remains one of the government's biggest problems and millions of people still live in vast settlements known as shacks.

"Recognising the enormity of the task the South African Homeless People's Federation - a community based organisation - is working with a local NGO, People's Dialogue, to help create people-driven solutions.

Caption: Durban, population 2.5 million, 50% informal residents

Comm: "Sylvia is a member of the South African People's Federation and her story epitomises the struggle which many underwent in their attempt to get housing."

Sylvia, South African Homeless People's Federation: "When I first came to Durban I stayed in the Umlazi township with my husband. We stayed at Umlazi for five years. There was political violence at Umlazi. Houses were burnt down. Even mortuaries were burnt down. We ran away and stayed at the police station for months. From the police station we moved to the park. In Cannon Gate Park we stayed under black plastic bags. We had no shelter. We really struggled to survive."

Caption: Canon Gate 1997; Newlands West 1998 - present

Comm: "Sylvia and her community were driven to a grass verge in the middle of one of Durban's busiest highways because the authorities had no system to resettle people in such situations. They lived there for many months, but started to save and participate in the Federation.

"The child that was born in the park belonged to the Mkombe family. The woman who was pregnant had been with us in the park for quite some time. We noticed her delivery date getting closer. She ultimately gave birth under the black plastic bags in the park. We chose Cannon Gate Park because we wanted to highlight our plight to the Government and our city council, that we do not have land to stay and they had to help us find land to build our own houses.

Caption: Gcinulwazi informal settlement

"After months in the park Sylvia and her community finally realised their dream of secure land when they were allocated a plot by the Durban authorities. This was accomplished through persistent pressure by the community, the Federation and People's Dialogue."

Sylvia: "We like this place. We would like to develop it into a proper township with proper roads and all placid houses. We do daily saving every day. It is the daily saving that will help us one day to address these concerns. We are 155 families; about 55 people have already built houses. 10 people have already dug trenches and build concrete slabs."

Caption: The SAHF has a network of 1100 savings and credit collectives throughout South Africa. 85% of its members are poor homeless women there are now 100 000 families involved in daily savings. Sylvia's community is building houses using a loan fund owned and controlled by the federation.

Sylvia: "We hope by the end of the year we will have all built houses because no one likes living in a shack. We all want beautiful houses. We are here to visit Mamma Beatrice, our housing saving scheme convenor."

Mamma Beatrice: "What makes me happy here in Newlands is that, although I still do not have a home, but one day I will get a loan to build my own house. I am sure of that because I do daily saving. I save fifty cents or one rand (7 US cents) every day. That's the money that will help me get a loan so I am very happy."

Comm: "Even though Sylvia's community has now secured land thanks to their collective efforts state subsidies for housing construction take long to arrive. In the meantime, most continue live in shacks without basic service and security from crime."

Mamma Beatrice: "I don't have a problem with the community as such. The problem I have is a very personal one. I am very tired to living in this shack. When it rains I literally get soaked. I cannot wait for the material to come to build my own house and then I can get my children back from where they are staying and live with them under one roof."

Sylvia: "When you cross he road you are confronted by young boys who smack you, snatch your bag, they run, hide amongst the trees. Even if we try to give chase we never catch them. The crime rate is very high here because it is so dark. There's no electricity You cannot see people at night."

Comm: "Even after they are housed South Africans like Sylvia face many serious problems including Aids. The South African Housing Federation is working to provide care for sufferers and Aids orphans using the same collective systems of daily savings developed for housing."

Sylvia: "There are a lot of people here who have died of AIDS - over eight, and there are still those who are very ill. It's just that we people do not want to be very open about it. We always claim witchcraft, but the reality is a lot of people are sick, very, very sick. They are dying of AIDS. I have eight grandchildren, some are my son's children, some are my daughter's children. It is hard looking after them, but I don't have a choice because they don't have parents. Their parents died, so it is my responsibility to look after them."

Caption: The South African Housing Federation is working to provide care for sufferers and Aids orphans using the same collective systems of daily savings developed for housing.

Manila, The Philippines

Comm: "Because of chronic overcrowding in Manila, half the city's poor are forced to live in what the urban experts call 'informal' settlements. Actually it means living in a place where you might be ejected from your home at any moment, where there's little in the way of law and order and where you live in fear of landslides - not of mud - but of rubbish.

"Running the gauntlet of the landslides are the scavengers who must make a living from this perilous environment. Beyond hope? Beyond caring? You'd think so, but you'd be wrong. For the scavengers are also mobilising themselves through a grassroots federation.

Lucy Jerusalm, The Philippines Homeless People's Federation: "Payatas is a 21-hectare, open rubbish dump within Metro Manila. All the garbage in the area comes here. People survive through scavenging on the dump because there's no other employment for them.

Scavengers at Work

"I came from southern Visayas Province to Manila in 1988 and I lived here in Payatas. After I lost my job in 1990, I joined the scavengers on the dumpsite until 1995. Then I became a community volunteer.

"The problems in Payatas, especially for those living near the dumpsite are mainly skin diseases caused by bathing in contaminated water.

"Now we'll go to the site of the landslide that happened on July 10th last year, and the danger zone nearby.

Caption: In July 2000 hundreds of people living by the Payatas garbage head were killed in a catastrophic landslide.

Lucy Jerusalem: "This is where a lot of the houses and victims are still buriedthe dump site used to be further away but it's moving closer."

Comm: "The Payatas residents, with help from the Philippines Homeless Federation, is pressing the Government to buy land for the scavengers where they'd be safe. But like the rooftop dwellers they have little faith in the authorities.

"The main problem here is concentrated in Phase 2, the danger zone just 50 metres from the dumpsite. (We are trying to relocate the families that live here, 50 metres from the danger zone.)

"The Payatas Scavengers Association Inc has been going for five years and we run a savings programme for the scavengers to help them with their future."

Comm: "Lucy's association is part of the Philippine Homeless Peoples Federation which helps people manage their savings so that they can buy land and build homes on safe sites."

Lucy Jeruslaem: "Dulce is my eldest daughter, she's in charge of the wastepicker's savings scheme from this dumpsite office. She's here everyday to collect the daily contributions from the scavengers. They contribute before the end of the day, before they get a chance to spend the money, so they have something set aside for family emergencies.

Aston, 10 km from the Payatas Dump

"This land belongs to the Payatas Scavengers Homeowners Association, it's in Mont Alban, Rizal Province. The Payatas Scavengers Homeowners Association bought the land in 1998 for 4.5million, 3.9m of that came from our savings programme. There's enough land here to house 306 families living in the danger zone and those who were victims of the landslide on July 10th."

Comm: "The Federation's work isn't confined to Manila it has 200 other member groups throughout the Philippines.

"Through the Homeless federation of the Philippines, the UN could support our savings programmes and the federation's revolving fund and work to improve the security of land tenure for the urban poor."

Lucy Jerusalem: "Here in Payatas we just have two dreams - to get security of land tenure and to alleviation of poverty - in Payatas, these are our goals."

Jinja, Uganda

Comm: "The gradual upturn in Uganda's economic fortunes has yet to benefit the people who live in Mpumudde, the most deprived part of Jinja, the country's second city. Very few of the 20,000 inhabitants of Mpumudde have a job. For women whose husbands cannot find work, the only source of income is from distilling a local gin called 'waragi'. In the ramshackle brewery distilling it can be dangerous work and in its raw form it's a killer."

Grace: "Our husbands are jobless, that's why we stay in the factory, where we are distilling here. We come here very early in the morning at six when we start the work. You stay here for months and months. When you work too much, about two to three weeks, of course you can even get sick. You can get tired. Its tiredness making you to be sick.

"This waragi here is the one even promoting my children. That's why you see the children here carrying water and so on, they are assisting us so we get money.

"Margaret here got an accident when her mother was distilling. You can even see from the hands, she's got burns here."

Margaret: "I was eight years old and I was here with my mum helping her to carry water. One of the drums busted and then they burnt me. I was taken to hospital, I stayed there for four months.

"That smoke in fact it affects the eyes and I've been distilling for my school fees for so long, now sometimes I can't see well, I can't read well because of the smoke, it spoilt my eyes. It will be good if maybe they bring the pipes that take out smoke and also maybe they modernise the whole system.

"If I don't work here then I can't afford to go to school. I've missed almost the whole of this term, just because of school fees. My dream is to become a lawyer.

"We have problems with water and you cannot eat the water is very dirty. When you reach the house you smell like a dirty thing.

"There are several people living here we just combine to live here it's not my property the owner can chase me at any time. I stay in the house the roofs are badI bought these chairs I can't even buy the cushions"

Comm: "Instead of trying to stamp it out, the authorities have listened to the community. The message was keep this last resort way earning a living, but make it safer to make and to drink. A breakthrough has come with money from the Community Challenge Fund which has been set up by DFID, the British development assistance agency, to help finance schemes devised by poor neighbourhoods. The funds will be used not only to buy safer distilling equipment and help them establish their own businesses but also to build homes."

Margaret: "All these sufferings I wish God vanish me away and I could come back to the old times when happiness and so on

"They say in English there are ups and downs I came down the ladder and again if God wishes I might go up."