The strength of this powerful book is that it is not "about" women in
poverty. It's women speaking for themselves.
Another thing the book does is give an insider's view of what it's like
to deal with the various agencies and bureaucracies established to serve
people in poverty. There are a few bright spots in the maze, but mostly
it's a grim picture.
The overall impression is of strength and gritty determination in spite
of impossible situations - a testament to the human spirit.
Cathryn
Food & Health Project Leader
Interior Health
Kelowna, BC
-----Original Message-----
From: Social Determinants of Health [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Chrystal Ocean
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 9:25 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SDOH] Women and Poverty
Tina, if you want to hear from women in poverty directly, then you
should get WISE's book "Policies of Exclusion, Poverty & Health: Stories
from the Front" (link below). The book contains the stories of 21 women
living in poverty in one Canadian community. Each woman tells her story
in her own words, most stories begin in childhood, and all of them
expose the cause(s) of the storyteller's slide into poverty.
The book includes two reports, also in the first-person and so from the
women's perspective. The first report draws out the dominant issues
found in our stories. The second report outlines our recommendations for
positive change and includes encouragement and advice to other women in
poverty.
The book has been recommended by Dietitians of Canada as a key source
for understanding the complexity of poverty.
Some unsolicited feedback:
- I wish I were still teaching sociology; I would assign this book. It
tells women's stories in ways that no one can ignore, and it drives home
the major features of vulnerable women's lives. You have done the best
kind of qualitative research.
- I thought the book brilliant.
- On the way to work this morning I tried to think of words to express
simply the tumble of emotions, concerns, guilts, etc. that the stories
evoked in me. And the admiration, the humility - for would I be so
resourceful, so grittily determined if I had been faced with such
adversity and stumbled, and stumbled, and stumbled?... Before reading
this, I would have said I grew up poor. But I don't know the meaning of
the word!! And then the hope and excitement expressed in phase two [our
recommendations report]. This is a tremendously powerful work. All of
those involved have created something that will affect every reader
profoundly to the core.
That's where the change will start.
--Ocean
---------------------------------------------------
Chrystal Ocean, Coordinator
Wellbeing through Inclusion Socially & Economically
http://www.wise-bc.org/
TO ORDER - Policies of Exclusion, Poverty & Health: Stories from the
Front http://www.wise-bc.org/CVProject/book.html
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