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. To UNSUBSCRIBE send to: [log in to unmask] the following phrase "unsubscribe click4hp" as unquoted text. To view archives or manage your subscription (and create a password) go to http://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/click4hp.html