Children of Poverty. It's a Better Story Now

from the Vancouver Sun

Ayla Thompson, her younger sister Jasmine, and their since-deceased mother were profiled in a Vancouver Sun Children of Poverty series in 1994

Larry Pynn

KITIMAT - A former school teacher recently mailed Ayla Thompson a weathered copy of The Vancouver Sun depicting a seven-year-old girl sitting beneath two makeshift clotheslines in the hallway of her rundown east Vancouver home, reading a book.

Another photo depicted a four-year-old girl with her mother, collecting the monthly welfare cheque from the mail box in a filthy alcove.

The date was May 7, 1994, the headline was Children of Poverty, and the girls were Ayla and her younger sister, Jasmine.

"When I received the article in the mail from my teacher, I was brought to tears," relates Ayla, who had no idea she once served as a poster child for poverty. "I knew things were bad as a kid, but I never thought they were that bad.

"It was like seeing your life written by someone else."

I co-wrote the 12-page Children of Poverty special report with Robert Sarti, who retired almost a decade ago from The Sun but remains active in poverty issues.

Researching and writing the special project proved to be a heart-wrenching experience. My voice cracked later that year when I picked up a Jack Webster Award for The Sun for best reporting.

I told myself I'd never revisit that story, that I'd stick to my environment beat.

Then Ayla read the special report and sent The Sun an e-mail suggesting we write a follow-up.

She explained she had a family of her own now: husband Sean Thompson, 27; daughter Mikenzie, born in August 2006; and another baby due in July.

She said she's determined to be a better parent than her own mother, Sandy Hall, a "struggling addict" who died in Vancouver General Hospital in 2005 after post-surgery complications.

"I'm married and doing way better than our last visit," she wrote. "I've made a vow to myself that I was not going to raise my children the way that I was raised and I feel that I'm doing a pretty good job so far. "

How does a reporter say no to that, a 21-year-old child of poverty who endured 27 different foster homes and who is now working to break the cycle?

I never met Ayla or Jasmine in 1994. Sarti covered their story while I and photographer Bill Keay were covering other impoverished children and their families, including a series of articles on the northwest community of Terrace, less than an hour's drive north of Kitimat.

However, the photographer who worked with Sarti, Ian Smith, still does work at The Sun, and jumped at the chance to reconnect with Ayla and Jasmine -- even though they were too young at the time to remember him now.

Together we journeyed to Kitimat, where Ayla and her family live in a small but neat basement suite, and 17-year-old Jasmine lives in a foster home while completing her schooling.

Along the way, we took a look at how youth and poverty issues have changed in Terrace, as well as across the province. And, in east Vancouver, we caught up with 26-year-old Kandice Boudreau, a fetal alcohol victim who was also profiled in our 1994 report.

Like Ayla, Kandice says she is determined to not repeat the mistakes of her biological mother, an alcoholic on the Downtown Eastside who died in 1997 of a heart attack.

"You can count on me," Kandice confirmed during our follow-up interview.

CHILDERN'S FUND

The Sun, through its charitable fund, is seeking applicants for a one-time grant of $500,000 for a project to help B.C. children. Today, we conclude our five-part series on serious health and welfare issues facing B.C. children with a look at poverty.