[antiwar-van] Tomorrow: MCFD - Keep Our Families Together!

[Harsha W.]

- tomorrow! please forward widely -

MCFD: KEEP OUR FAMILIES TOGETHER!

Gather at Ministry of Child and Family Development Regional Office Tuesday
August 3 from 3:30-5:30 pm
@ 865 Hornby, corner Smithe

The Ministry of Child and Family Development (MCFD) has forcibly removed
many children from their families, especially from single mothers, poor
families, Indigenous communities, and from parents who were themselves
caught in the vicious cycle of foster homes. There are currently more
Indigenous children in the child welfare system than there were in the
residential school system. Thousands of mothers and families are enduring
surveillance and scrutiny instead of receiving support.

The DTES Power of Women Group is organizing to defend and support healthy
families. Almost all the women in our group have had their children
apprehended temporarily or permanently, or are currently facing the threat
of child apprehension.

All welcome, please join us!
For more information project at dewc.ca or call 604 681 8480 x 234.

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The Power of Women Group is a group at the Downtown Eastside (DTES)
Women's Centre, located in the DTES of Vancouver, the poorest off-reserve
postal code in Canada.

We are a group of women (we are an inclusive group) from all walks of life
who are either on social assistance, working poor, or homeless; but we are
all living in extreme poverty. Our aim is to empower ourselves through our
experiences and to raise awareness from our own perspectives about the
social issues affecting the neighbourhood.

Many of us are single mothers or have had our children apprehended due to
poverty; most of us have chronic physical or mental health issues for
example HIV and Hepatitis C; many have drug or alcohol addictions; and a
majority have experienced and survived sexual violence and mental,
physical, spiritual, and emotional abuse.

For indigenous women, we are affected by a legacy of the effects of
residential schools and a history of colonization and racism.