Haitians still in a 'stunned' state

A Massachusetts volunteer for "Medicines for Humanity" just returned from Haiti. Betty Scanlon says that most of the people there are still in a "stunned" state from the earthquake back in January. Many Haitians are still afraid to go indoors, still fearful or depressed.

Now that the rainy season has begun in Haiti, new humanitarian challenges emerge as all of the homeless, shelter-less people stand under the heavy rains. Medical workers in Haiti fear that malaria will soon effect hundreds due to the rainy season.

From The Abingdon Mariner, writer Seth Jacobson interviewed Betty Scanlon.

Bilodeau said even before the earthquake, people in Haiti were dying in large numbers from very treatable ailments like dehydration and diarrhea, noting, “In Haiti, one out of every 10 children do not reach their fifth birthday” because of these sicknesses.

“Normally, there’s a resiliency among people who live in poverty,” Scanlon said. “But what we’re seeing in Haiti is that sense of resiliency is being overshadowed by grief, loss and trauma. People are afraid to go indoors for fear a given structure might collapse.”

She said some women were sleeping on tarps on the ground, on their backs, holding their infants up in the air for fear they would drown in the floods from the heavy rain.

“I saw some people standing under awnings in the rain, sleeping standing up,” Scanlon said.

She said health professionals told her that with the rainy season coming on, cases of malaria will also be increasing, adding to Haiti’s troubles.

On top of everything else, Scanlon said psychological professionals in Haiti told her that because of the current situation in the country, “suicide rates will most likely go up.”

“It really is an unthinkable situation,” she said.

When she was asked what the country needs most, Scanlon said, “It’s still very much about food, water and shelter.”

Anti-poverty activist Robert Corad passes away

An anti-poverty activist who helped to build one of the biggest agencies for the poor was laid to rest yesterday. Robert Corad pushed policy makers in Washington and in Massachusetts to help the people that Action for Boston Community Development served.

From the Boston Globe, writer Adrian Walker attended the funeral.

Coard, who died last week at the age of 82, has been celebrated as the guiding force behind Action for Boston Community Development, the city’s largest and most influential antipoverty agency.

But Coard’s friends, allies, and admirers gathered not only to celebrate his life, but perhaps get a glimpse of the private and elusive man behind the good works.

Representative Edward Markey, who had shared a close relationship with Coard for many years, delivered a lengthy eulogy that sought to capture the scale of Coard’s influence.

He invoked Edward M. Kennedy’s famous tribute to his fallen brother, Robert: “a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it.’’

But he also remembered a man who struck respect, if not fear, into the elected officials he called upon to do the agency’s bidding in Washington and at the State House.

“For generations of Boston politicians . . . Ed Markey included, ABCD didn’t stand for Action for Boston Community Development; it stood for Anything Bob Coard Desires,’’ Markey said.

Nationally, Coard helped engineer legislation nearly 30 years ago requiring federal funding for community action programs, ensuring that the movement ABCD exemplifies would survive, regardless of which party was in power.

US health Care Plan may make it harder for the poor

Criticism continues to poor in on the US Health Care proposal that has just been released from the Senate Finance Committee.

Many of the reforms are based on the Health Care plan in Massachusetts. Since enacted in the state, the government has had trouble keeping up with the increasing prices for health care, especially during the global recession. In fact, some unintended effects of the plan have made it harder for the poor to receive health care. Critics say that the problem with the federal reform bill is that is patterned after Massachusetts plan.

From the IPS, Adrienne Appel explains how the Massachusetts plan has made it harder on the poor.

All the major plans in Congress are mirrored after the reforms in Massachusetts, including the requirement that everyone purchase insurance at market rates - which grow yearly - or face a hefty fine. The fine is up to 1,000 dollars in Massachusetts.

"Once failure to buy health insurance is a federal offence, what's next?" Steffie Woolhandler, a Harvard physician and member of Physicians for a National Health Programme, recently told a Congressional committee.

The Massachusetts reforms were crafted three years ago by Republican Governor Mitt Romney, the venture capitalist and presidential candidate.

"The Massachusetts plan is not sustainable. It contained no cost control and raised no new revenues. We're basically just spending money," Benjamin Day, executive director of MassCare, which campaigns for a single-payer system, told IPS.
...

The Massachusetts reforms are attractive to Congress because the state outlawed abuses by insurers and cut in half the number of people without insurance, meaning that 97.4 percent of residents were insured, the highest percentage of any state.

But, "Skimpy, overpriced coverage like this left one in six Massachusetts residents unable to pay their medical bills last year," Woolhandler said.

The requirement that all residents buy health insurance or be penalised is a centrepiece of proposals being debated by Congress, though it has proved highly unpopular in Massachusetts and surprisingly unsuccessful.

About 352,000 people in 2008 chose to be fined rather than pay 4,000 dollars or more per year for health insurance, according to figures just released by the U.S. Census.

The Massachusetts reforms were enacted two years ago to try to decrease the hundreds of thousands of people showing up at hospital emergency rooms desperate for health care and with no money to pay for it.

There was a system in place to cover this care, a tax on wealthier hospitals that was redistributed to poor hospitals that provided most of this free care, and it was working well. But the wealthy hospitals asked for reforms.

"The individual mandate is a huge boon for insurers. And hospitals got a huge rate increase," Day said.

"Patients are not an organised group and they had no voice, much less uninsured people. It's not quite the ideal political experience," he said.

"We had a free care pool for the uninsured and for many people it was better than what we have today," Day added.

The poor now have to purchase drugs that previously were free, and pay every time they see a doctor or go to the hospital.

Poor people continue to seek free care at hospitals and clinics, but under the reforms the hospitals are no longer compensated for this care. The clinics and hospitals are buckling under the stress, and have had to cut staff and programmes.

Boston Medical Centre, which treats anyone regardless of ability to pay, is reimbursed just 64 cents for every one dollar it spends, it says. It is suing the state as a last resort.

Health reform "should not and cannot be financed on the backs of the poor. We hope our suit serves as a cautionary tale to federal policymakers as they take up national health care reform," said the hospital's CEO, Elaine Ullian.

Cleaning up the trash in a Guatemalan town

A great story details one family's work in aGuatemalan village. The entire Rose family from Georgetown, Massachusetts travels to the village of San Juan Comalapa to help the people. They previously built a park/community center for soccer and a nursery, they also help to teach English and have helped refurbish the community hospital.

The latest project is to build a school out of recycled materials. To help raise funds for the construction, an art show is being held in Massachusetts.

We found more details of the project and it's fundraiser in the Newbury Port Daily News.

Rose and her family have decided to help with a solution. They have joined an initiative through the community development organization Long Way Home, which is finding beneficial ways to put trash to work.

The group's latest project involves building a school out of recycled trash in San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala, for students in kindergarten through grade 12.

"We're trying to clean up the environment and recycle trash into another form that's usable," said Rose, the new president of Long Way Home's board of directors.

The new school comes at the request of Tecnico Maya, the smallest and poorest school in Comalapa, a community of close to 40,000 residents. It is being constructed with recycled materials, such as tires and used soda bottles filled with paper and plastic trash.

"This is part of Long Way Home's huge recycling effort," Rose said.

Although the new school, which will include a vocational program, is being built primarily with volunteer help and recycled materials that come at no cost, Rose said it will need windows, doors, desks and school supplies.

To raise funds for the school, Long Way Home is touring North America to increase awareness about the organization and its efforts. A representative will be in Georgetown this weekend to make a presentation during an art show fundraiser being organized by Rose.

What: Art show and sale to benefit Long Way Home

When: Tomorrow and Sunday, 3 to 7 p.m.

Where: 90 Pond St., Georgetown

How: Call 978-352-6804 or e-mail elizrose213@yahoo.com.

The struggle to stay warm in Massachusetts

We are seeing way too many of these kinds of story's.

In the cold weather climates, many poor people will not be able to stay warm this year. It's not only a problem in the US but worldwide.

The demand for help is growing and those who have worked in assistance programs have never seen the demand this high.

Chris Cassidy, a writer for the The Salem News in Massachuseets, examines how the US recession is effecting people's need to stay warm.

"We're seeing more people applying for (fuel assistance) than we have in many, many years. More people than I've seen in the 15 years I've been here," said Beth Hogan, executive director of North Shore Community Action Programs, an anti-poverty agency in Peabody. "We're averaging about 300 calls a day, and we're doing our best to keep up with those calls."

The food pantry at the Salem Mission had to close twice last week because it ran out of food, marking only the second and third time in the last few years that's happened, said the shelter's executive director, Mark Cote.

"It's pretty desperate right now," Cote said. "I've never seen this kind of demand for food. It really is kind of overwhelming that we cannot keep the shelves stocked."
[..]
Still, there are signs of good news. The federal government will increase the amount of money it devotes to fuel assistance this year, and Social Security benefits are expected to rise.

But leaders of North Shore nonprofits say more has to be done and called on the community for help.

"I think people really need to be more thoughtful and cognizant of the people that they do live with in their neighborhoods and think about things like whether they have food or heat," Hogan said. "This could be a very difficult year for folks."

The story also has a unique perspective from fire fighters who are concerned that high heating oil prices will lead people to do something unsafe. They site examples such as wood stoves needing permits to install, and floor heaters requiring special electric cords.

Childhood poverty increasing in Massachusetts

from the Boston Globe

By David Abel,

The number of children in the state living in poverty is increasing, pushing Massachusetts lower in the ranking of states with children in need, according to a new report.

The report, released yesterday by Massachusetts Citizens for Children, highlights new data from the US Census Bureau that show 182,000 children, 13 percent of all children under age 18 in Massachusetts, lived below the federal poverty line last year, 4,000 more than in 2006.

The state last year ranked 11th in the percentage of children living in poverty, below Alaska, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maryland, Hawaii, Minnesota, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming. In 2006, Massachusetts ranked fifth.

"These 182,000 children would form an unbroken line the entire length of the 138-mile Massachusetts Turnpike," said Jetta Bernier, executive director of Massachusetts Citizens for Children.

"A legislator driving on the Mass. Pike from his or her district to the State House would pass by a child who is poor every four feet, or 1,300 children every mile."

Even worse, in a state with one of the nation's highest median family incomes (about $60,000 in 2006), about 87,000 children lived in extreme poverty, or families of four earning less than $10,600 a year.

Bernier said that Massachusetts has the third widest divide between the rich and poor in the nation and that the divide is growing at the fourth fastest rate.

"The chasm is threatening to undermine our state's bright future," she said.

The report suggested that the Census Bureau focus on the federal poverty line, in effect, conceals the true number of people living in poverty.

The federal poverty level - about $20,000 for a family of four - uses a decades-old formula that doesn't take into account the rapid increase in the costs of housing, transportation, education, and fuels, among other things.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Massachusetts law spurs rise in health coverage

from Reuters India

Here is an update on what is going on with Massachusetts' health care plan. This seems to be written with an international audience in mind, since it came from Reuters India. - Kale

By Jason Szep

BOSTON - Nearly half a million people obtained health insurance in the two years since Massachusetts enacted a pioneering health-care law, officials said on Tuesday, putting the state closer to covering nearly all residents.

The law, seen as a possible national model as traditional employer-based coverage shrinks nationwide, made Massachusetts the first U.S. state with near-universal health insurance when it went into effect in April 2006.

Between June 2006 and March 31, 2008, more than 439,000 people enrolled in private or subsidized health insurance programs, the state's Executive Office of Health and Human Services said in a report.

It said the growth reflected a big expansion in private coverage, which grew by more than 191,000.

"To have insured nearly a half-million people in less than two years is nothing short of remarkable," said Gov. Deval Patrick in a statement.

There was no estimate on how many people remain uninsured.

The law makes coverage mandatory through an "individual mandate" that requires virtually everyone to have health insurance or face tax penalties. For those earning less than the federal poverty level of $9,800 a year, coverage is free.

Those earning up to three times the poverty level can get subsidized plans, according to the legislation, which was signed into law by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, and backed by the state's top Democrats.

Ninety-three percent of Massachusetts residents, or 5.9 million people, had health insurance based on a 2004 survey. Of the 460,000 uninsured, about 40 percent earned more than the federal poverty level.

The bill was hailed at the time as a bipartisan attempt to reverse a trend that has left more than 47 million Americans uninsured.

But the legislation has been heavily criticized. Some health policy experts have questioned whether it can be sustained because it depends heavily in the long term on slowing growth in health-care costs, a prospect that some doubt will happen given the steady rise in costs in recent years.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Holy Cross students see Third World poverty up close

from the Worcester Telegram and Gazette

By Bronislaus B. Kush

About two years ago, Nicholas Campolettano, a student at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester who was studying religion and sociology, began developing an interest in the plight of some of the indigenous people of Africa.

He researched issues affecting Africans and carefully monitored news developments from the world’s second-largest and second-most populous continent.

Last year, Mr. Campolettano, a resident of Hicksville, N.Y., on Long Island, even worked with U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, and state Sen. Edward M. Augustus Jr., D-Worcester, to organize a program on the genocide in Darfur.

“I did a lot of studying, but you can only read so much,” said Mr. Campolettano, who will be a senior next fall. “I wanted to expand my understanding, and the only way I could do that was to get some firsthand experience.”

He got that chance.

Mr. Campolettano and 13 other Holy Cross students recently returned from Tanzania, an East African nation on the Indian Ocean. The trip was arranged through the school’s faith-based Arrupe International Immersion Program. A second Holy Cross group is visiting the country now.

“The trip certainly made an impression on me and it provided me with a special perspective that I didn’t have before,” Mr. Campolettano said.

The program is named after Pedro Arrupe, a Jesuit missionary who aided those injured in the 1945 atomic blast at Hiroshima and who later became superior general of the Jesuit order — or the Society of Jesus, as it is formally known.

Holy Cross spokeswoman Kristine Maloney said the program has been offered at the school for 22 years and hundreds of students have participated in trips to Mexico, Jamaica and Appalachia, as well as to Africa.

She said the program’s aim is to make participants more aware of the privileges they have and encourage them to extend a helping hand to the less fortunate.

Students get a real feel for the country they’re visiting because they have direct contact with inhabitants in natural social settings.

Ms. Maloney said some students are so affected by the trips that they decide to study a discipline that trains them for career fields geared toward aiding the needy.

“A lot of the participating students are transformed by the experience,” Ms. Maloney said.

Rebekah C. Linga of Douglas, a junior, said she was struck by the poverty most Tanzanians live in.

“I knew we were going to a Third World country but I didn’t expect that things would be that bad,” said Ms. Linga, an English major. “We realized we were in another world as soon as we got off the plane.”

Slums dominate the outskirts of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city and its commercial center, she said.

“The homes were basically made up of sticks in the mud with roofs of hay,” said Ms. Linga, daughter of Eileen and Boleslaw Linga. “They were about the size of a Holy Cross dorm room.”

Many street people tried to sell visitors jewelry, trinkets and other items, she said. One woman even offered to pose for a picture in order to get a Tanzanian shilling or two.

Many people had no shoes.

“There was a young boy who walked around in pink flip-flops,” she said. “Boys don’t like pink, even in Tanzania, so you knew he had nothing else to wear.”

Ms. Linga said things aren’t much better in the countryside, where there is no electricity in many places and where some residents must walk a mile or two for water.

Holy Cross students were humbled by the trip and wanted to reach out to the Tanzanians they were visiting, she said. Some, she said, wanted to donate some of their clothing or toiletries, which are considered luxury items in Tanzania.

On some nights, the students gathered to reflect on what they had seen or experienced with Marty Kelly, the assistant Holy Cross chaplain, who accompanied the group.

“Personally, I wanted to do whatever I could to help these people,” said Ms. Linga, who hopes one day to become a magazine writer or editor. “I wanted to get my hands dirty and to do some kind of work.”

Despite the obstacles they face, Tanzanians work hard to improve their lives, said Ms. Linga.

She and Mr. Campolettano said Tanzanians realize the importance of education and noted that many students in rural areas walk miles to go to school.

“The people have a great spirit,” said Ms. Linga, who brought home some jewelry, a small tribal mask, and some animal figurines from her trip.

Mr. Campolettano, who also took part in an immersion group trip to Mexico, said there’s a mounting effort to fight AIDS in Tanzania. Previously, many Tanzanians refused to deal with the issue because of the stigma associated with the deadly disease, he said.

Mr. Campolettano said he particularly remembered a small clinic staffed by three doctors — one from Wisconsin — and some nurses who provided AIDS prevention counseling to the 50 or so patients treated daily at the clinic.

He also noted that women are working to empower themselves within the framework of a patriarchal Tanzanian society. For example, he said, cooperatives have been organized, some by the Sisters of Notre Dame, in which women pool their financial resources for the betterment of all.

One such group is saving money for a cow, said Ms. Linga.

She added that more and more Tanzanians seem to think tourism might bolster the fortunes of their country.

Tanzania’s economy today is mostly based on agriculture: About 80 percent of the work force is involved in some aspect of farming. But Tanzania, with a population of about 40 million, is home to a dozen beautiful national parks, such as the Serengeti, and some see tourism as a means to expand the national economy.

Breaking the cycle of poverty Single mother from Lawrence to graduate college; hopes to be police officer

from The Eagle Tribune

By Yadira Betances
Staff Writer

LAWRENCE — Growing up, she knew she wanted more out of life than living in poverty in a housing project.

"I'm not embarrassed about my background," said Awilda Pimentel, 27, of Lawrence. "Growing up in poverty made me see things differently and gave me the incentive I needed to be successful in life."

Pimentel is one step closer to achieving her goal.

On Saturday, Pimentel will receive a certificate in criminal justice and nursing from Northern Essex Community College. In the fall, she begins her studies in the accelerated bachelor and master's degree program at University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

Pimentel dropped out of school at 14 and worked at Greater Lawrence Family Health Center and a mortgage company.

She soon realized education was the key to her future.

"I didn't want just a job — I wanted a career, and felt education was the vehicle to take me where I wanted to go," said Pimentel, mother of Jose Rosario Jr., 3.

She went back to Lawrence High, graduating in 1998. She then had a tough decision to make — leave her job and have no income or go to college.

Pimentel chose the latter, even if it meant being on the brink of homelessness because she had no money to pay rent and other bills.

She said her son is what motivates her.

"I'm doing this for him. I'm paving the way for him so he can see education comes first."

During this trying time, she became a One Family scholar, an organization which helps keep women like Pimentel from becoming homeless by providing financial and emotional support and skills needed to gain financial security.

The opportunity transformed her life. Pimentel enrolled at Northern Essex Community College, where she has been on the dean's list.

Richard Kelley had Pimentel as a student in his alternatives and incarceration class. Pimentel not only came to class well prepared, but was always willing to participate in discussions.

"You can tell she wasn't going to settle for less. She's one of the smartest people I know," said Kelley, an assistant chief in juvenile probation. "She is someone who overcame so much and because of that she wants to do well, and she will."

Costs soar for Mass. health care law

from the Denver Post

By STEVE LeBLANC

BOSTON—Two years after the state's landmark health law was signed, the cracks are starting to show.

Costs are soaring and Massachusetts lawmakers are weighing a dollar-a-pack hike in the state's cigarette tax to help pay for a larger-than-expected enrollment in the law's subsidized insurance plans.

But that hasn't dampened enthusiasm at the Statehouse. Leaders there boast that in the two years since former Gov. Mitt Romney signed the law with a choreographed flourish at historic Faneuil Hall, the number of insured residents has soared by nearly 350,000.

Along the way the law has been scrutinized by other states, sparked the ire of critics on the right and left, and drawn the attention of presidential candidates.

"It's the very first question I get when I'm with other governors," said Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. "I don't think anybody is prepared to say that what we have done here in Massachusetts is necessarily the formula for the rest of the country or for a national reform, but at least we are trying."

No other state has launched as comprehensive a plan. California attempted their own health care expansion, but the $14.7 billion program failed to get out of a key Senate committee.

"The Massachusetts reform law remains the focal point for other states and the nation in trying to figure out if state-based reform is possible," said Alan Weil, head of the Maine-based National Academy for State Health Policy. "It's the biggest game in town."

One of the most radical fixtures of the law is the so-called "individual mandate"—the requirement that virtually everyone have health insurance or face tax penalties.

Anyone deemed able to afford health insurance but who refused to buy it during 2007 already faces the loss of a $219 personal tax exemption. New monthly fines that kicked in this year could total as much as $912 for individuals and $1,824 for couples by December.

It's not clear how many uninsured residents remain in Massachusetts. At the time the law was signed, estimates started at 500,000.

The law—and its individual mandate—has become a key talking point in the presidential race.

Hillary Clinton has made an individual mandate the centerpiece of her health plan. Fellow Democrat Barack Obama's plan doesn't include an individual mandate for adults, although he would require that children be covered. Republican John McCain wouldn't require universal coverage.

Under the law, anyone making less than the federal poverty level is eligible for free care. Those making up to three times the poverty level can get subsidized plans.

Anyone earning more is required to get health insurance through their employer, on their own, or by purchasing lower-cost plans through the Health Care Connector, the independent state agency overseeing the law.

Businesses are also on the hook. Those with 11 or more full time employees who refuse to offer insurance face $295 annual penalties per employee. Already, 748 employers have failed to meet that threshold and have paid $6.6 million to the state.

Rick Lord, president of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, said the state must be "very mindful of placing burdens on businesses that don't exist in other states."

"It's a delicate balance," he said.

John McDonough, executive director of Health Care For All, a health care advocacy group that pushed for the law, concedes it's become a political punching bag.

Those on the left see the law as a poor substitute for a Canadian-style single-payer model, while those on the right say the law interferes with the free market.

"The two sides agree on nothing accept for one thing: They hate our little ecumenical experiment here in Massachusetts," he said. "It's almost as if they are the health care fundamentalists and we're like the heretics because we are coming together."

Michael Tanner, a senior fellow at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute, said the law has been an unqualified failure.

Tanner was critical of the connector authority, a "super-regulatory agency" which has mandated levels of coverage. He also noted the vast majority of the newly insured are receiving subsidized care.

"They said it would get us universal coverage and reduce costs and it's done neither," Tanner said.

The biggest challenge is rising costs.

In 2006, a legislative committee estimated the law would cost about $725 million in the fiscal year starting in July. In his budget, Patrick set aside $869 million, but those overseeing the law have already acknowledged costs will rise even higher.

Fighting to end poverty

from Arlington Advocate

By Nicole Laskowski

Arlington, Mass. - In October 2005, John Abdulla, a graduate of Arlington High School, had one of those rare life-changing moments. During a U2 concert at the Fleet Center in Boston, Bono mentioned the ONE campaign, an international organization aimed at raising awareness and ending global poverty and diseases in the poorest countries. Before that, Abdulla didn’t think much about poverty or malaria or AIDS or even activism, for that matter.

“Knowing how much we spend on the war in Iraq and how little we spend on this other cause that could save more lives,” Abdulla said. It was enough to make him stop and think about how he could help end the battle with poverty.

So, when his professor assigned a research project in his writing class at Curry College in Milton, Abdulla decided to take a closer look at extreme poverty, or what is defined as living on less than $1 a day, specifically in Africa.

“There are many different stats regarding the issue, like any other issue, but the one that really stays with me is that 30,000 children die every day from extreme poverty,” he said. “That's one every three seconds. It amazes me. And the worst part is that they are all preventable deaths.”

But he didn’t write a paper. Instead Abdulla, a communications major who is hoping to get into filmmaking, put together a seven-minute video that juxtaposes images of starving children and adults in Africa with statistics he happened across during his research. He called the video “The African Dream: Ending Extreme Poverty.” Bono’s voice fades in and asks for people to get involved in the ONE campaign.

“The creation process helped me to become so passionate,” Abdulla said.

On Oct. 17, 2006, the day set aside for standing against poverty, Abdulla decided to gather people together and show his video. Only three people came, but Abdulla saw how his video affected them and decided he needed to do more. Later that year, Abdulla, along with a handful of other interested students, decided to launch a ONE chapter at Curry College.

“It was opening my own mind and creating an awareness of others instead of just myself,” said Abdulla.

He continued to show his video to anyone he could get to watch it, and, through word-of-mouth, more and more people started showing up. Abdulla was then introduced to another Curry College student, Peter Nhiany. Nihany is one of a group of Sudanese refugees collectively known as the Lost Boys of Sudan.

Together, the ONE campaign at Curry College began raising money to build a well in Sudan.

When the ONE campaign launched its ONE campus challenge, a national challenge to help raise awareness about global poverty and disease, Abdulla wanted to get involved. Each event they held or awareness act they performed in the name of the campaign earned the school points as they competed across with more than 700 universities across the country. Representatives from the top 100 schools were flown to Washington D.C. for the Power 100 Summit. Curry College, with just 4,000 students, fluctuated in standing, but never dipped below the top 100.

At the beginning of January, Abdulla traveled to Washington, D.C. where he met with 99 other student leaders from across the country. He spent three days visiting with politicians such as Newt Gingrich and economic experts like Gene Sperling, the economic studies and director of the center for universal education at the council on foreign relations.

“The more I’ve learned, the more inescapable it’s become,” said Abdulla.

He returned from his trip energized to do even more, to continue with the ONE campaign challenge and hopefully earn the $1,000 Curry College could earn if they remain within the top 100 schools. That could mean more money for a well in Sudan.

“I know there are about 2.4 million people in the country involved in this campaign, but the meeting reinforces that we’re acting together on this,” he said.

And someday, he said, he hopes he’ll go to Africa and turn his desire for filmmaking into activism as well.

Feeding the hungry

from the Worcester Telegram and News

Study: 464,000 Bay Staters, 7% of population, at risk

NO PLACE AT THE TABLE - PART 1 OF 4

By Richard Nangle TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Anti-hunger advocates are working as hard as ever to feed the increasing millions of Americans who are chronically undernourished or at risk of going hungry.

Despite their well-intentioned efforts, though, hunger persists, as if it were a necessary component of the human landscape, a product of a society that has decided it is acceptable to have big winners and big losers.

The situation lends itself to assessing blame. But the villains are elusive, hidden amid a complex and disjointed system that perennially falls short of its promise.

However, there is evidence that anti-hunger advocates are beginning to be heard. The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a project co-initiated by the Boston-based nonprofit Eos Foundation, has just released a poll showing that 50 percent of Americans believe the hunger problem in the United States is getting worse, up from 38 percent in 2002.

When it comes to world hunger, it is 63 percent, up from 44 percent in 2002.

The disparity shows that many Americans who would acknowledge hunger in the poorest nations of Africa, for example, do not see the same condition in their midst.

Worcester’s Grace C. Ross, who has spent her adult life running nonprofits and working with people who live on the margins of society, believes the first step to awareness is to admit that hunger exists. Too many people, she insists, will not go there.

“We must first acknowledge that this is a citywide, and systemwide, problem and then take proactive policy action: increasing food-stamp use and drawing down food-stamp outreach money, which Massachusetts is almost last in accessing; looking at local policies that will increase local jobs; supporting living-wage policies and the right to organize; and taking on a more aggressive long-term approach to affordable housing,” Ms. Ross said. The fact that we, as a society, can end hunger makes it a moral imperative that we do so, she said.

Worcester’s representative in the U.S. Congress, Democrat James P. McGovern, is one of the most vocal and influential anti-hunger voices in the country. He wants to make his hometown ground zero in the fight against hunger. He, too, uses language such as “moral imperative” when he calls for a sea change in the way America views this issue.

Mr. McGovern is one of a growing number of anti-hunger advocates who believe the issue needs to be viewed through the lens of rising costs that are crushing people on the lower economic rungs. The stereotype narrative about hunger is that it only applies to the homeless. Mr. McGovern said that those who work in food pantries know that the numbers are high because a growing number of working families and senior citizens cannot meet basic needs.

An October report by the Children’s Sentinel Assessment Program, based out of Boston Medical Center and supported by Citizens Energy, explored that theme. C-SNAP’s report tied recent increases in fuel prices to the inability of low-income families to keep pace with those costs and to the resulting poor health of their children.

Last year, anti-hunger forces received a jolt when they learned that the Worcester County Food Bank had delivered food to 71,000 people in Worcester County in 2005, up from nearly 51,000 in 2001, the last time a comprehensive study of hunger had been conducted.

The federal study put the number of hungry in Massachusetts at 464,000, about 7 percent of the state’s population. The nationwide figure was 25 million.

The local statistics reflect a growing number of people unable to cope with a rising cost of living that is no longer confined to greater Boston and the wealthiest pockets of the state, according to Jean G. McMurray, executive director of the Worcester County Food Bank. She said the situation had been exacerbated by a declining state and federal contribution to hunger eradication.

Mr. McGovern and others would like to assess blame for all of this, but he says that federal funding for the hungry comes from so many different sources that it is difficult for Congress to grab hold of the issue in a substantive way.

As co-chairman of the Congressional Hunger Center, Mr. McGovern has championed ending hunger in his district, throughout the country and around the world. In setting such a seemingly impossible goal, Mr. McGovern attempts to illustrate the manmade nature of the situation.

“I tell people all the time that hunger is a political condition. What has been lacking is the political will to end it,” Mr. McGovern said. “This problem can be solved. We have the resources. We have the food. What we don’t have is the political will.”

According to the Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity poll, a majority of Americans agree that politicians need to focus more on the issue of hunger. It found that 54 percent of Americans do not believe that “political candidates have spent an adequate amount of time discussing hunger and poverty issues.”

Mr. McGovern was the impetus behind the Hunger Free Network, a cooperative effort throughout Worcester County of food pantries, churches and shelters working to establish a new system.

The 3-year-old effort is a product of Mr. McGovern’s belief in the importance of aiming high and refusing to accept any hunger in the fabric of American life. The Worcester County Food Bank partners with about 200 food pantries and other agencies to reach the farthest corners of the county.

Besides food pantry and meals programs, the neediest residents of Central Massachusetts are eligible to participate in the federally funded food-stamp program. For various reasons, though, many are not taking advantage of the program. State officials say many people who work and make a low income are not even aware that they are eligible for food stamps, so the state is stepping up efforts to seek out such people and sign them up for the program.

Mr. McGovern took some ribbing in some quarters when he publicly tried to eat for a week on a $3-a-day food stamp subsidy, a challenge Ms. Ross also undertook. But Mr. McGovern said the stunt caught the attention of some of his colleagues and resulted in an additional $4.2 billion in food and nutrition program spending in this year’s farm bill. He said many of his colleagues admitted having no idea just how stingy the food stamp program had become.

“Because of that food-stamp challenge, Congress was shamed into fixing the food-stamp program in the area of indexing the benefit,” Mr. McGovern said. “The Republicans removed the indexing, and there was no adjustment for inflation or a cost-of-living increase. That has been fixed.”

Mr. McGovern is careful not to come down too hard on the Republicans in the blame department, however. That’s because he is going to need them. His Congressional Hunger Center co-chairman is a Republican. The occupant of the White House, of course, is a Republican. And Mr. McGovern is not content to wait until January 2009, when a Democrat might or might not take over the presidency, to take the hunger issue to the next level.

“If we’re going to end this problem, we’re going to need leadership at the very top saying this is a priority, setting goals and benchmarks that can be measured, and going about systematically and methodically ending hunger in America,” he said.

Far from hopeless about the prospect of accomplishing such a large task, Mr. McGovern contends, “Some issues we are not going to be able to solve while I’m in Congress, or while I’m still alive. Hunger is not one of them.”

Mr. McGovern and Ms. Ross are not alone in believing hunger is a solvable problem. J. Larry Brown, director of the Center on Hunger and Poverty at Brandeis University, for example, insists that the United States could permanently eradicate hunger at an annual cost of $10 billion.

Mr. McGovern touts the Boston Medical Center’s approach to hunger as a promising model.

“Boston Medical Center treats hunger as a health issue,” he said. “You show up and if you’re not eating properly, or are food insecure, there is a food bank at that hospital. You do not leave unless there is a plan to get you the foods you need. It is a model that every hospital should emulate.”

At present, Mr. McGovern’s staff is playing a lead role in organizing a White House summit to raise hunger from a fringe issue to a major policy discussion. Mr. McGovern and his supporters want the bulk of Americans to become uncomfortable with the idea that hunger is so intertwined with life in the bottom rungs of society.

In the meantime, however, it remains exactly that.

Literacy funding key to fighting poverty

from The Republican

On days when freshly fallen snow covers bare trees, when the biting winter wind finds its way between the collar of my coat and the nape of my neck, I sometimes think of her.

Pushing a baby carriage over speed bumps made of snow on a Holyoke sidewalk, she would arrive every evening with a warm smile and an infant bundled up against the cold. She was there to pick up a young son who was being tutored at the Homework House in Holyoke, an after-school program where I volunteered last year.

To say that she was not a soccer mom is an understatement. There was no warm van waiting. No money for a cab. No husband at home caring for the baby. Just a young mother who enrolled her son in this program to give him a better chance.

Maybe it is because of her that I was not surprised recently to learn that the percent of school children living in poverty has grown significantly over the last five years in Springfield, Holyoke and Chicopee. The story in The Republican, based on U.S. Census Bureau data, reported that 33.2 percent of school children ages 5 to 17 in Springfield were living below the federal poverty level in 2005, up from 27.2 percent in 2000.

The 2005 poverty rate in the Connecticut River Valley was highest in Holyoke, where 39.7 percent of children were living on the edge while 20.3 percent were living in poverty in Chicopee.

The news about the rising urban poverty rate competed that week with the musings of political pundits on whether Hillary Rodham Clinton's rare show of emotion during the grueling New Hampshire primary contributed to her victory. The fact is that this kind of poverty should make every one of the presidential candidates cry.

While all of the candidates are preaching the mantra of change, the real change that should come from this election is a plan to end poverty as we know it. And that plan must include making literacy and education a priority.

Literacy programs like the Homework House, started by the Sisters of St. Joseph and supported by the city of Holyoke and its schools, are a start.

In its first year, the program helped children advance at least one grade level in many subjects. The program, staffed with volunteers, also helps provide a warm haven to children who live in the poorest community in the state.

For some, including the many foster children in Holyoke, it may be the most secure home they've ever known.

But such programs are facing a rising tide of need and a diminishing pool of resources. In Massachusetts, one of the most affluent communities in the world, government funding covers just about 5 percent of the need for literacy services.

Nationwide, funding for federal Even Start family literacy programs was slashed to the bone last year by the Bush administration.

Meanwhile, a literacy gap feeds a cycle of poverty that continues to choke our cities. In Springfield, a panel led by the United Way is studying this scourge and ways to end it.

The problem, fueled by a high rate of teen pregnancies, is deep rooted and complex. But it is ignored at our peril.

Not too long ago, Hurricane Katrina bared the underbelly of poverty in America to the world. But, in our own back yard, the city of Holyoke's entrenched poverty rates surpass those of hurricane victims in New Orleans, according to a report released last year by Mass Inc. and the Brookings Institution.

So, the next time a candidate for the nation's highest office emotes, I hope it is about the plight and the pluck of a poor young mother, who battles wind and weather to make sure her son gets the extra chance he needs.

The candidates are right. It is time for a change, and the sooner the better. Marie P. Grady is director of the Literacy Works Project for the Hampden County Regional Employment Board. She can be reached at (413) 755-1367 or via e-mail at mgrady@rebhc.org

For some elders, pride before food

from The Boston Globe

By John Guilfoil, Globe Correspondent | January 31, 2008

Advocates for the elderly are pushing hard to get area senior citizens in need of assistance to apply for the federal food stamp program, but pride and embarrassment stand in the way, they say.

Many seniors who never had to ask the government for help during their prime working years now find themselves struggling with lower incomes. As a result, it's harder for them to make ends meet while juggling medical needs and prescriptions, utility bills, housing and food costs, and other routine expenses.

Living on Social Security payments, sometimes supplemented by a pension, retirees may be eligible for aid for the first time. But many do not seek the help, now that they no longer work full time.

"It's very difficult to get people to overcome the stigma that seems to be attached to the program, even though it can benefit people," Kristin Kiesel, director of the Sudbury Council on Aging, said of food stamps. "The whole history of the program makes people reluctant even if it could benefit them."

The local effort is part of a nationwide campaign by the US Department of Agriculture to get more seniors on food stamps. In recent weeks, the agency has sent out posters and pamphlets and had public service radio and television spots aired. It also has streamlined the application process, and allows people to apply online or over the telephone.

State officials have also enhanced efforts to bring eligible senior citizens into the food stamp program, providing resources such as additional training for those who assist the elderly with applications, and more information and access to the program.

The efforts are important in a state such as Massachusetts, where participation in the food stamp program has historically been low, according to the USDA.

The department reports that in 2005, Massachusetts was ranked 49th in the country for participation by those eligible for food stamps, with just 12.8 percent of the seniors living below the poverty level enrolled in the program.

In community after community, advocates say, the story is the same - when seniors think of the aid program, they envision "the poor person" with a book of food stamps, tearing out the individual paper coupons to pay for their groceries while the other customers in line stare impatiently.

This image lingers, they said, even though the current system utilizes a plastic debit card, much like a Visa or MasterCard, and using it is fast and discreet.

A number of area senior centers, including Sudbury's, are working to debunk myths about the program and remove the social stigma about receiving help from the government. The message is simple: Food stamps provide food.

"Food stamps are not welfare," Kiesel said. "The program is designed to help people get nutritious food that they otherwise might not be able to afford." So far, however, no one in Sudbury has gone through the whole sign-up process, officials said.

At the Milford Senior Center, the message was conveyed in a recent issue of the Elder Milfordian, a newsletter mailed to the community's 2,800 households with older residents. But as it is with tax, medical, and fuel assistance, Milford seniors are often too embarrassed to seek help, officials say.

"It's been our history that seniors are a little bit shy about applying," said Ruth Anne Bleakney, director of the Milford Senior Center. "They don't want anyone to see them come into the senior center and have an application."

Bleakney said center officials have noticed that some of the food stamp applications left out for people have been picked up. But because seniors are reluctant to talk about food stamps, it isn't possible to tell whether there has been an upswing in applications for the program. The reticence creates another problem for advocates.

"It's hard to know who needs help, because they're not going to tell you," Bleakney said.

Natick seniors are seeing a targeted marketing campaign from their senior center, with posters highlighting the program and brochures and forms available to pick up.

"Sometimes it's an issue of awareness, not being aware of what benefits are available," said Moira Munns, director of human services for the Natick Council on Aging. "But sometimes even awareness is not enough to shift attitudes."

In Newton, officials with the Senior Services Department have found some success, after promoting the food stamps program for several years as a regular part of their work with the city's elderly.

"Every time we meet a senior, we do an assessment and part of that assessment is seeing if there are any entitlement programs that they are not accessing, that they should be accessing, and food stamps is a big one," said Kathy Laufer, a clinical social worker for the city.

Newton treats the food stamps program like Social Security or Medicare - something that seniors have paid taxes into and have earned the benefits in return.

"We educate seniors that this is a program they are entitled to. They paid taxes to this when they are younger, and this is not a charity," Laufer said. Several seniors have signed up for food stamps in Newton after listening to a presentation.

To qualify for food stamps, an individual's net monthly income should not exceed $851. For a household of two, the maximum figure is $1,141. Seniors can deduct many expenses, such as doctor's bills, over-the-counter and prescription drugs, attendant or visiting nurse care, and dental care, from their gross income when determining whether they qualify for food stamps. Even seniors who own their home or get meals delivered to them through a government program may be eligible, officials say.

Information about applying for food stamps can be obtained by calling the USDA's toll-free telephone number for Massachusetts, 866-950-3663, or online at www.fns.usda.gov.

New anti-poverty group launched with $15 million gift

from Boston Business Journal

by Naomi R. Kooker

The Eos Foundation has pledged $15 million to be paid over five years to combat poverty in the Boston area, the Harwich Port-based foundation announced Wednesday.

The money will be used to jumpstart an independent nonprofit, Boston Rising, and will be modeled after Robin Hood -- an innovative New York City-based group that draws significant support from hedge fund, financial, and industry leading professionals. Robin Hood reported distributed more than $130 million last year alone, according to Eos' release.

The Eos Foundation plans to leverage its gift; it is in the process of raising matching funds to increase the impact, according to the release.

Currently, Boston Rising is an initiative established by Eos President Andrea Silbert, the co-founder of the Center for Women & Enterprise and a 2006 candidate for lieutenant governor.

The foundation will serve as an incubator to get Boston Rising off the ground. There is no timeline for it to reach the 501c3 status, said Eos spokeswoman Dorie Clark.

The creation of a new nonprofit comes on the heels of Boston witnessing several nonprofit mergers in a saturated landscape of nonprofits. It is also coming at a time when family homelessness is high and youth crime an issue, citing poverty as a contributor.

"The Eos Foundation believes the clearest path to a better future is through working to alleviate poverty, especially as it affects children," said Silbert, in a statement. "Boston Rising will bring new resources to bear on fighting poverty in our city, and we believe it will make a substantial long-term impact."

Boston Rising will emphasize applying business techniques to help nonprofits make the greatest impact in alleviating poverty. Using more metrics and applying business tools to nonprofit operations, in general, has been an increasing practice in the segment.

Naomi R. Kooker can be reached at nkooker@bizjournals.com.

Springfield No. 6 for child poverty

from The Republican

By STAN FREEMAN
sfreeman@repub.com

SPRINGFIELD - With troubling implications for the city's future, Springfield ranked sixth worst in the nation for the percentage of its children living in poverty in 2006, according to recent census figures.

The U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey found that 44.6 percent of people under age 18 in Springfield lived below the federal poverty line in 2006. That was more than three times higher than the state's child poverty rate, 12.4 percent, and well more than twice the national rate of 18.3 percent in 2006.

Those who study poverty say it is at the root of many social problems, and so has effects far beyond itself.

"Down the road, there's going to be a negative impact in terms of spending on crime, education and social services," said Nancy R. Folbre, an economist at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst who studies the economics of families.

"There is a lot of social science research that suggests that poverty has long-term negative impacts on children, especially if it is prolonged and especially if it involves very young children," she said.

The new figures show a marked increase in the child poverty rate for Springfield compared to those from the 2000 federal census. In 1999, 31.6 of related children from 5 to 17 years old lived in poverty in Springfield, the 2000 census found. According to the new figures, in 2006, the figure had climbed to 46.6 percent.

In contrast to Boston or New York City, where rents and home prices are generally higher than in surrounding areas, Springfield has some of the cheapest housing in the Connecticut River Valley. That has attracted young families, immigrants and the poor, increasing poverty rates in the city in recent years.

According to the census figures, Gary, Ind., had the highest child poverty rate in the nation in 2006 at 54.2 percent. Other Massachusetts cities in the top 50 were Lawrence, No. 34, with a rate of 38.9 percent; and New Bedford, No. 44, with a rate of 36 percent.

Only cities with populations above 65,000 were surveyed. Holyoke, which is known to have a child poverty rate comparable to Springfield's, was not surveyed.

The census survey was based on a sampling of residents, so the rate has a large margin of error. Census officials said Springfield's actual rate could vary from 38.3 to 50.9 percent.

"But no matter whose numbers you rely on, it's clear child poverty is a serious problem in Springfield. It underscores the need for investment in economic development and job creation in the city," said Michael D. Goodman, director of economic and policy research for the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute.

Poverty can create a vicious cycle, say sociologists. When a neighborhood or city does become impoverished, many affluent residents move out, increasing the impoverishment.

However, Timothy W. Brennan, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, said, "It's a vicious cycle if you let it remain a vicious cycle. There are a whole variety of interventions under way in Springfield."

Some of those programs to help poor children and their families escape their economic conditions in the city are those offering free school lunches, prekindergarten education, job training and academic tutoring.

For instance, Step Up Springfield is an educational initiative that aims to improve the academic skills of the city's public school children. It is funded mainly by the Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation, which is based in Springfield, and Massachusetts Mutual Financial Group.

Poverty does not end at city limits

from South Coast Today com

In communities of plenty, many border on homelessness
By JOSEPH R. LaPlante

WAREHAM — Joann can't afford the rent.
After only two months in her drafty Onset cottage, she's moving out. And she worries that the $550 security deposit she put down is in jeopardy if the place isn't cleared of her furniture when she leaves.

Shortly after moving in, Joann realized she could not afford to stay in the asphalt-shingled cottage. She countered the cold blowing in through cracks in window frames and door jams by turning up the thermostat. The resulting $85 gas bill amounts to more than 10 percent of her monthly $800 Social Security check.

"When I first came, it looked pretty good, compared to the motels and some of the apartments," said Joann, 64, who asked that her last name not be used. "I thought I could make it. If I clear out all the furniture, I get the deposit back. I need that money."

For a growing number of SouthCoast residents, the margin between having a roof over their head and being out on the street can be as slim as Joann's $550, social service providers say. In towns that sprout "McMansions" like dandelions and lure wealthy, second-home buyers to exclusive seaside enclaves, thousands of others desperately struggle to survive.

The poor live in every city and town of Bristol and Plymouth counties. Ten percent of Bristol County's population, 52,236 people, lived below the poverty line in 2000, slightly higher than the statewide average of 9.3 percent. Plymouth County was higher at 13.3 percent.

From Wareham, where 10.7 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, to Westport, where 4.9 percent do, the poor in the SouthCoast suburbs are struggling anonymously in plain view. They work multiple, low-paying jobs — serving your coffee at the drive-through in the morning and sweeping up your crumbs at the pizza parlor at night. They survive by weaving together a network of social services: subsidized prescriptions, reduced school breakfasts and lunches for their children, meals taken at local soup kitchens, heating oil assistance, and furniture and clothes from charities.

America is getting poorer. In 2005, 13.3 percent of Americans lived in poverty, up from 12.4 percent in 1999, according to the census bureau. And 14 million of the nation's poor live outside the big cities. The poorest populations are children and the elderly, the bureau reports.

falling behind

The gradations of poverty in SouthCoast are marked by the types of housing the poor can afford, until they can afford nothing, said Lee MacDonald, director of Turning Point, which provides shelter and transitional housing and services to Wareham's poor.

"We have the homeless, the 'Woods People' (who live outdoors) and the near-homeless, the working poor," she said. "The near-homeless may be elderly and living in their own house but now they can't afford to; they are single people or families living in the mobile-home parks; they are single mothers and their kids living in motels and paying $200 a week."

That final situation is the last step to the point of no return.
"Once they start at a motel and pay $200 a week, there will be no way they come up with money for an apartment," Mrs. MacDonald said. "If they can get the first month's rent, we can get them the security deposit, then they have a chance, but they really have to work."

But, finding an apartment with an affordable rent?
"If you work for minimum wage, you have to work 119 hours a week to afford a minimum rent," Mrs. MacDonald said.

A one-bedroom apartment in Wareham costs $1,000 a month; a two-bedroom costs $1,200 or more, Mrs. MacDonald said.

The people seeking help now at Turning Point and similar agencies would not have been seen in these financial straits 15 years ago, Mrs. MacDonald said: "CEOs and bank managers come in. Something happened (to them). It is a shame."

And, their numbers are increasing, evidenced by the 71 people that Turning Point helped in January alone, Mrs. MacDonald said.

'two lost souls'

Among those seeking help are Joann and a woman she met at the town's Senior Citizens Center. Joann and Sandy, 56, have more in common than a budding friendship. Both handicapped, they are now roommates, with Joann moving in with Sandy last week. Still, they face homelessness next month because the house they live in is being sold.

Until mid-April, at least, they will live in a house owned by Sandy's stepfather. But he plans to sell it this spring, and he wants them out.

They are trying to get a loan to buy a used mobile home in a local trailer park, but raising the down payment of $3,000 is an obstacle; that is what brought them to Turning Point. They plan to put down $1,000 ($500 apiece) as earnest money with the seller of the trailer. Sandy receives $1,100 a month in Social Security Disability Insurance.

Sitting inside the Turning Point office at The Church of the Nazarene on Rogers Road, a camaraderie is obvious in a joking, self-deprecating exchange.

"We are two lost souls," Joann said in mock self-pity.
"Speak for yourself," Sandy retorted.
Joann chuckled and pointed to the walker with an oxygen tank attached that Sandy uses.
"Watch it. I'll pull your plug," Joann said.
Sandy laughed. "We get along very well."
But the spectre of homelessness looms and darkens Sandy's mood momentarily.
"What do you do with someone like me?" she asked.

'hard slide'

The two women have been running into barriers for years.
In August 2000, Joann had the first of two heart attacks while working her shift at Dunkin' Donuts. She sometimes worked 70 hours a week in that job and another at a pizza restaurant to take home $400. A pair of strokes followed, leaving her physically unable to work. She moved to Wareham from an apartment in Brockton because her partner abused her, she said.

Sandy, who also asked for anonymity, was a social service provider in the Worcester area after earning a master's degree in the field when she was diagnosed with pulmonary disease, making it difficult for her to walk. The strain of the disease took its toll on her marriage, which ended in divorce. In a short period of time, she was felled by, in order, respiratory failure, breast cancer and a heart attack. Now she's attached to an oxygen tube 24 hours a day.

"I had a very good job and benefits and, the next thing I know, I am over the cliff," she said.
Sandy sold the 3,000-square-foot log cabin she owned in the woods of Worcester County, sharing the proceeds with her two children. She moved into the Wareham house owned by her stepfather and mother four years ago. Her mother died two years ago and her stepfather moved to Florida.

"It is a hard slide," Sandy said. "I keep breaking through one level of poverty to the next. You start out in the middle class. You get sick. You have to be disabled for a year to get benefits. You go through your unemployment, so you find a couple of jobs in your field that pay less than you used to make because you don't have the stamina, physical or mental, to do your old job. And then you end up in the hospital three or four times in the winter."

She recited her plunge through the economy calmly, matter-of-factly.
"I had to apply for Social Security. That takes a few months, and that puts you behind the eight ball. You can't afford your lifestyle anymore. You have debts and obligations from when you were earning more."

not just a city problem

Poverty knows no boundaries, said Bruce Morell, executive director of director of People Acting in Community Endeavors, an anti-poverty agency in New Bedford.
PACE serves Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Acushnet, Rochester, Marion and Mattapoisett, as well as New Bedford, where the 2005 census reported 20 percent of the population living in poverty.

"The closer you get into New Bedford the more you will find pockets of poverty," Mr. Morell said. "The town line doesn't change that."
"Most of the families in the towns have the same problems as those in the city, except they pay more for housing in the towns than they do in the city — the rents are higher out there," he said.

Another difference between urban and suburban poor families is their age.
"A lot of the poor in the outlying smaller towns (Westport, Marion, Rochester and Mattapoisett) are elderly," Mr. Morell said. "A lot of them live in their own houses that they bought a long time ago. They are often in the situation where they have equity in their homes, but they don't have much cash."

Being poor in a small town in SouthCoast adds an extra worry: the lack of transportation.
"The biggest difference (for the poor) between living in the city and the small towns is the lack of transportation," Mr. Morell said. "Public transportation isn't available in the suburbs, if that is what you want to call them."

The lack of transportation limits the accessibility of poor families to services, Mr. Morell said.

need alongside wealth

Mrs. MacDonald retired four years ago from the MBTA, where she originally drove a bus, then worked as a collector.

"I saw terrible things in the job," she said. "People used to come in to use the washrooms because they were homeless; families on the street. When I retired, I wanted to help."

And she settled into SouthCoast, the fastest growing region of the state. But that rising tide of growth doesn't necessarily lift all boats.
"People don't realize the need is so great down here," she said. "I think people have blinders on."

Along with those fortunate enough to buy a home and peace of mind in a beautiful place, there are many others, like Joann, hanging on tenuously to a place warm and dry, and maybe safe.

Joann found helpers from her church to move the furniture, but that $550, which will be her share of the deposit on the trailer, is in jeopardy: The wall on the stairway got smudged by her box spring, and her landlord may keep the money to make the repair.