Thank you chrystal:

In one of my previous jobs, I worked within a women's prison. Our
project was designed (supposed) to help reduce recidivism. I know, wrong
end of the equation! If we want to reduce recidivism I should have been
working to reduce poverty because in many of the cases the women were
imprisoned for the crime of poverty. (I reckon at least 80% of the
"crimes" women were incarcerated for were directly related to poverty
and more if you saw drug related cases as caused by / linked to
poverty.) And so often it was the pressure of holidays like Christmas
that had driven women to steal or shoplift or attempt fraud. As one
mother told me (and her words are as vivid today as the day I first
heard her): "I just couldn't see my kids go without, again. I wanted
them to have Christmas too, just once, like the other kids." Women
swamped by all of the same pressures you identify in your post.

As an aside, our project carried out activities as designed and shaped
by the women themselves. One activity was called the loyalty bear
project. Funded by local women's church groups - who we had appealed to
and motivated on the simple basis that don't doubt that you too would be
in this place if you were in similar circumstances with your children -
the project allowed us to buy teddy bears- all called "Loyalty". We
would take the bears to wherever the women's children were being cared
for and tell them the story of Loyalty, as collectively crafted by the
women, and take photographs. The photos were then framed and given the
mother. Like many women in poverty they did not have access to cameras
and thus had few, if any, photographs of their children. The pictures
provided both connection and comfort, such a small thing, such an
inexpensive project but indicative of how things most can take for
granted (like photos) are denied by poverty. I have never forgotten how
women in prison suffered and survived the absence from their children.
Not only did the punishment not fit the crime, it was the wrong crime
that was identified. The real crime was poverty...  It still breaks my
heart to think how little that loyalty bear project had such a huge
meaning for the women. 

Theresa Healy, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor
Dept. of Gender Studies and the School of Environmental Planning
UNBC, Prince George, BC. V2N 4Z9
email: [log in to unmask]; cell phone: 250-565-1955

"Until lions have their own historian, tales of the hunt will always
reflect the hunter." African proverb.


-----Original Message-----
From: Social Determinants of Health [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Chrystal Ocean
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 11:43 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [SDOH] I hate the holidays

I hate the holidays. So does anyone I know who lives in poverty,
including
the children, who are torn by the tension produced from the excitement
of
their peers, advertisers' unrelenting hype and trying to accept their
circumstances and be supportive family members.

As a single woman living in poverty in a rural community, what I dislike
the
most are the assumptions:
- that everyone celebrates something at this time of year,
- that everyone wants to receive gifts, regardless of whether they
celebrate
something at this time of year,
- that everyone should give gifts, regardless of whether they celebrate
something at this time of year,
- that everyone should 'do something' to celebrate, regardless of
whether
they celebrate something at this time of year,
- that everyone can get around at this time of year regardless of the 
transit system going on holiday.

What makes it really hard is the deadening. It's as though small
communities
like mine, over the course of the holiday frenzy, have sucked themselves
dry
and stopped breathing. All stores and offices close for at least three
days
and some for two weeks, the sounds of human industry fall silent. It's
like
everyone, the community itself (including Internet communities), dies or
goes away. And so those left behind, the ones who don't or can't play
the
holiday game, feel the stamp of 'outsider' that much more starkly.

Ocean, WISE Coordinator
http://www.wise-bc.org/

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