One of our clients sent this to us today. We have removed the clients name for purposes of anonymity. Poverty isn’t just a lack of money; it’s a lack of everything – luxuries, social life, peace of mind, self. It’s forever thinking about money because there is never enough. It’s about always putting out fires and hoping that when the next one comes you’ll be able to put that one out too. It’s forever doing mental arithmetic as money gets moved in your head from one allocation to another as things come up. It’s having people not understand that you can’t do something simple like meet for coffee because the money simply isn’t there. It’s living with shoddy things that don’t work because you simply can’t afford to replace them. It’s the false economy of dollar-store purchases and cheap, badly-maintained apartments with massive hydro bills. It’s about feeling visible and judged as you wear your clothes until they are threadbare and your shoes until they fall apart - painfully aware of uncut hair. It’s worrying that people judge you as a parent because your children, too, wear shoes until they fall apart and go without haircuts, new clothes, activities and sometimes adequate-seeming lunch boxes. It’s forever saying ‘no’ to your children and praying they don’t get sick as the money for their medication will have to come from somewhere. It’s constantly worrying about the future; yours and your children’s until it looks so bleak that you just stop. It’s prioritizing the food you buy and not having the luxury of making the same choices as normal people; having to sacrifice quality, variety and ethics to make sure your family is fed. It’s watching the world going past you knowing there is no way you can afford to join in. Poverty feels like a weight, like you’re drowning and there is no land in sight. This client painfully and poetically sums up the thoughts and feelings of the 12.9% of Jewish people living on or below the poverty line in the GTA. Please help us share this message widely, and if you feel like you want to help, please donate to JF&CS.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 17:32:13 +0000
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