Given the news about the US House rejection of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, sounds like 
we poor people may soon have some company. Among the illustrious personages joining us 
could be politicians. 

Now wouldn't that be poetic justice!

At any rate, one more podcast has been added today to the WISE podcast channel: Episode 17 - 
Paige. 

This is the same project - whose total $15,000 in grant money was from Status of Women 
Canada - to which I did a comparison on my blog (http://tinyurl.com/48dxpn) to the AWEDA 
project which has been in the news recently.

In short, in March 2008 AWEDA (All Women's Empowerment and Development Association) 
received a $142,700 grant from Status of Women Canada. It is reported that their executive 
director and recent Conservative candidate, Rosamond Luke, unaccountably took $84,000 of that 
grant money for herself. AWEDA closed its doors after six months, the 12-month project, cut 
short, having helped only SEVEN women. 

While WISE experienced a similar situation, we did not close our doors, at least not then. Instead, 
we continued our year-long project in spite of the financial hit. 


EPISODE 17 - PAIGE

Like several of the stories in the book, Paige's story weaves together a number of common 
themes: being raised in a family where substance abuse is constant, sexual abuse, the adoption 
of the family pattern, the stresses on a marriage when a victim takes her abuser to court, 
experiences with the punitive welfare system, the lack of choice due to economic vulnerability. 

"I was going for a crisis grant because I didn’t have enough food for the kids. Welfare asked me 
to sign a Family Maintenance form, because my husband and I are doing our separation 
privately. I signed it so they could go after him for Spousal Maintenance. I don’t really want them 
to. I didn’t want to sign the thing, but I had to. Now they refuse to give me crisis grants. They 
want me to ask him for money for food. I can’t do it. He’s hostile about giving me money."

Paige is brutally honest about her background, her own behaviour and mistakes, and the 
consequences of these. She has lived this life and remains determined to change its direction. 
It's a heartbreaking story, and one that needs to be heard. 

Go visit the podcast channel. Listen, comment and rate!

Ocean

WISE Book - Policies of Exclusion, Poverty & Health: Stories from the front
Podcast Channel: http://bcseawalker.podbean.com/
Personal Blog: Challenging the Commonplace - and other irreverent activities
http://challengingthecommonplace.blogspot.com/

P.S. Am on a roll with these podcasts. Had been having trouble with my headphones, but 
discovered yesterday it was my heating pad - which I sometimes use to ease back pain - which 
was causing a constant hum in the recording. Now all is working fine, so the last five stories, 
plus cropped versions of the two reports, should be completed within the next six to eight 
weeks.
P.P.S. Daphne and I have redesigned our blog. So don't think you've arrived at the wrong place if 
things don't look the same to you. We used to have a bluey-grey, misty harbour background, but 
thought it time to give our blog a makeover. We'd become bored with the old look.

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