If charity and assistance are so omnipresent for the needs of the poor, why did government programs start?
I never suggested omnipresence; I merely challenged the assertion that you would not be here without them. You took one path. Others were likely available. The world will never know.
Why do people in other countries still die of incredibly easily treated diseases? Why do so many lack even adequate clean drinking water?
Government corruption is one of many reasons. Some governments behaving differently would increase survival rates even without enacting assistance programs.
You can lie to yourself, but I know better. It is not abstract to me. I'm quite aware of what government programs have helped me go from a house with no running water to a comfortable middle class existence, from food stamps to the GI Bill. I've traveled abroad too much and seen too many things to believe that simple charity from the community is enough to successfully combat poverty.
Successfully combating poverty is like winning the drug war. It won't happen. Some people may be helped, but if one moral hazard is exercised to combat another, what have we really won?
I'm glad you had a positive experience. It is a counterbalance to the wonders of assistance and the subsidy of sloth and irresponsibility that I literally have living next door to me making at least a portion of my taxation feel like a most definite armed robbery.
Help is one thing; we've woven a hammock, and it needs to be snipped.