Locals looking to 'Make Poverty History'

from Perry Sound

by Jack Tynan

PARRY SOUND – A group of area residents hope that by banding together they can make a dent in local poverty.

About 25 people gathered in St. James Centennial United Church for three hours Saturday afternoon to discuss how they can make a difference for the area’s unemployed and working poor.

The group gathered to hear from a representative of the national Make Poverty History campaign – an organization funded by several non-profit groups in order to coordinate a Canada-wide effort to eradicate child and family poverty in Canada.

The goal of the campaign is to help coordinate local efforts to fight poverty while simultaneously creating national momentum for legislative changes.

“I think a big part of our job is the awareness,” said Lloyd Taylor, past chair of the St. James church’s outreach program. “At this point, too many of the people are too isolated by the problem. It’s hard to convince people there really is a problem. Comfortable people don’t see it as a problem.”

The group gathered Saturday included teachers, doctors, students and members of several area churches. Although most were from Parry Sound, some Muskoka residents also joined the session – including Sara Hall, the NDP’s candidate for the riding during last fall’s provincial election – who encouraged residents to make poverty an issue in every election campaign.

“We need to make sure we show up at all-candidates meetings,” Ms Hall said. “It’s one thing to host your own all-candidates meetings, but you need to show up at every single one.”

Make Poverty History hopes to alleviate local poverty and convince world leaders to cancel debts owed by Third World countries, change policies to provide better foreign aid and eradicate child poverty across Canada, said spokesperson Sarah Mohan.

“About 800 million people go to bed hungry at night, many of those people are in Canada,” said Ms Mohan. “People go to bed hungry every night in Canada. We have this pressure at a local level right across the country and there we say, ‘listen, this is a democratic country and people are saying something’. A lot of our groups do local poverty work, such as helping out at food banks. You can really make this campaign what you want it to be.”

Most of those gathered Saturday said they were interested spreading a message across the province and country, but wanted to make a difference in the Parry Sound area, where the average family income sits at about $35,600, about $11,600 lower than the provincial average.

“We live in this little niche,” said local resident Frank Thompson. “It’s not getting better.”

The session finished with information on how to launch a local campaign and how to affect local election races.