Caritas Europa, of which Caritas Malta is a member, recently launched a campaign called Zero Poverty - Act Now. Its message is that poverty is not inevitable and that everyone, from decision-makers to the man in the street, can help to make this vision of zero poverty a reality.

At first glance it may sound as unrealisable a goal as the elimination of crime. After all, did not Christ himself say that poverty will always be among us? And so it will, in a relative way. But Caritas are making it clear that there is much, very much more that can be done to reduce the number of people who live lives of privation.

Just take a few of the proposals made by Caritas Malta director Mgr Victor Grech at a forum on the subject. He called for an adequate minimum wage and a revision of social benefits especially for those whose special disability or disease means they cannot work. He proposed the setting up of cooperatives where the unemployed could be given work that benefits society and the paying of special attention to early school leavers who risk ending up jobless. He also said it was urgent to redefine the national poverty line these recessionary times.

The point here is that poverty is a multidimensional reality with a multitude of causes and there is no one solution to it. But there are a variety of measures that could be contemplated to significantly reduce its incidence.

If poverty is defined purely as financial impoverishment, the causes may range from economy-related joblessness to a family's failure to budget properly; from a lack of educational opportunities to squandering one's resources on gambling or drugs; from making the wrong choices in life to inability to work due to accident, or sickness. And if poverty is defined more broadly as lack of well-being, as Caritas does, this might include deprivation in areas such as housing and health, each with its own contributory factors. All of which makes for a complex phenomenon that requires to be attacked on multiple fronts.

Certain types of poverty respond to pure economic growth, which is what all countries strive to achieve: The more growth, the more jobs are created and the more tax income is available to provide a robust social safety net. Other types could be alleviated by empowering the individual concerned: to get a job, do training, defeat destructive habits or simply stop being lazy. This is the role of social workers, which is why we need more of them; and it is what NGOs like Caritas do, which is why the government must never take their invaluable work for granted.

Poverty is a problem for the community but it is also one that the community can have a big hand in alleviating. It is a question of linking resources to needs, which is what the Malta Community Chest Fund does so well with its fund-raising efforts. But it sometimes happens in even more simple and direct ways. After The Times ran a story about a young mother-of-three living in a garage and generally struggling very hard to make ends meet, readers phoned in with offers of assistance. It says a lot for the importance of consciousness-raising, another aspect of the Caritas campaign.

The moral of the story? It is not just the government or voluntary sector but each member of the community that can contribute to the eradication of poverty. Easier said than done, perhaps, but all social progress starts from ideals.