[Wamvan] Story 1 from DTES POW “In Our Own Voices” - Madeline on "Childhood Abuse Brought Me to the Downtown Eastside "

Thu Jun 9 14:20:27 PDT 2011

Hi Harsha,

We met briefly at the WAM event a couple of months ago. I can't tell you how
affected I am by this project, and in particular, by Madeline's story. I've
posted about it on my humble blog - is there any way you can send this link
to Madeline? I'd like her to know how inspiring I found her story, and how
grateful I am for her contribution.

http://jininvan.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/were-all-from-somewhere/

I'm a communications consultant with a journalism background - if you're
ever in need of writing / editing help with similar projects I would be
honoured to lend a hand.

I follow you on twitter and will dm you my contact info.

Thanks,
Jindi

On Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 12:19 PM, Harsha W. <harsha at resist.ca> wrote:

>
>
> http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/story/childhood-abuse-brought-me-downtown-eastside/7424
>
> Childhood Abuse Brought Me to the Downtown Eastside
> “In Our Own Voices” Week I
> by By Madeline A DTES Power of Women Group
>
> In 1954, when I was six years old, I came to Canada from Germany. Ever
> since then I have lived in Vancouver. When I was growing up, my father
> abused me physically, mentally, and sexually. My mother did nothing to
> protect me. At the age of 13, I ran away from home and stayed with my
> friends in New Westminster until I turned 17. I was pregnant and went back
> home to Vancouver to give birth to a baby girl in 1966. She was
> apprehended in 1967 by the Ministry of Child and Family Development
> (MCFD). She was only 9 months old.
>
> Shortly after that, at the age of 19, I ended up in the Downtown Eastside.
> I found myself sinking into a depression and was constantly tormented by
> the horrific memories of my father’s abuse. I started using alcohol and
> drugs such as LSD, and entered into several abusive and exploitative
> relationships with men.
>
> In 1969, I moved to Winnipeg with a man. I quit drugs and had two
> children. But the relationship did not work out and I returned to the
> Downtown Eastside with one of my daughters in 1978. I ended up in another
> relationship, but this man began assaulting my young daughter. I did not
> know about this right away, as soon as I found out I broke up with him.
> But by then, MCFD was re-involved in our lives because they already a file
> on me, and my daughter was apprehended and taken away from me.
>
> I started drinking again and even tried heroin. It was hard to survive
> without enough money. I hardly ate. I relied heavily on food banks and
> collected recyclable bottles to make some extra dollars. I thought about
> prostituting myself, but I felt too ashamed and was worried that if my
> children found out, that they would look down on me. I was homeless and
> stayed at the Triage Shelter and Lookout Shelter.
>
> My favourite hangouts on the street were on Main and Hastings, Hastings
> and Abbott, as well as Hastings and Dunlevy. All the people there were
> also drinking and doing drugs and I felt like I fit right in. It was the
> only life I knew. In the bars, I would always meet men. They saw me
> sitting alone and would ask if they could join me, and I would let them.
> The men were never young and always offered me drinks. When they told me
> to come home with them, I would tell them that I had a disease.
>
> Now, almost twenty years later, I am clean and sober and have housing. But
> the issues in the Downtown Eastside, and the struggles that bring women to
> the Downtown Eastside, persist. Thousands of people still sleep on the
> streets or are in shelters because of a lack of affordable housing, and
> every year the Homelessness Count goes up. According to BC Housing’s own
> data, there has been an overall net increase of only 280 new social
> housing units over the past five years. Meanwhile, hundreds of
> condominiums are going up for the rich, supported by City Council and the
> dollars of the real estate industry, which displaces and pushes us out of
> our own neighbourhood.
>
> Why is it so hard to treat us as human beings? The government has the
> ability and the capacity—but not the political will—to ensure the
> elimination of poverty. I challenge any politician to switch places with
> us. Sleep in the alley, stand in a food line, and live off $6 a day; then
> perhaps they will understand our pain. We need housing. We need safety for
> women. We need more services like detox centres and health support teams.
> We need the police to stop their brutality, stop their illegal searches,
> stop beating poor people up, and stop arbitrarily arresting residents of
> the Downtown Eastside.
>
> For all these reasons, I like to be involved in supporting the Downtown
> Eastside. In 2006, I was involved with other women in starting the night
> shelter for the Downtown Eastside Womens' Centre (DEWC). We occupied the
> DEWC - which at the time only operated in the daytime - because we did not
> want the doors to close on homeless women who were getting kicked out and
> had nowhere to go. So we staged a sit-in at the DEWC after-hours and
> refused to leave. All night, we made beds for women with donated blankets
> and served food. After about 4-6 weeks of operating the shelter as
> volunteers and doing lots of media events and rallies, BC Housing funded a
> night-time shelter.
>
> Another major accomplishment that I was involved in was the Olympic Tent
> Village, which the DTES Power of Women Group and others organized during
> the Olympics. We were opposed to the Olympics because $7 billion was going
> to towards a big sporting party for tourists, while the Downtown Eastside
> was becoming poorer and homelessness had tripled. The Olympic Tent
> Village, which began on February 15 2010, was a safe place for Downtown
> Eastside residents, away from the cameras and the police.
>
> Every day I would help prepare meals for the site and gather donations.
> One day there was a young homeless woman with her daughter who arrived at
> the Tent Village. She would stay in a corner because she was afraid that
> she could get reported to MCFD as homeless and then her daughter would get
> apprehended. So I would take food to her tent and bought a toy for her
> daughter. Everyone was fed and happy and people felt free at the Olympic
> Tent Village. We even had activities like singing and drumming and
> storytelling. After one month, about 80 people got housing as a result of
> the pressure and advocacy at the Olympic Tent Village.
>
> Though the institutions that govern and rule the Downtown Eastside are
> ugly, as you can see, the residents of the Downtown Eastside have so much
> beauty and strength.
>
>
>
> Madeline A. volunteers at the Downtown Eastside Womens' Centre and is a
> member of the DTES Power of Women Group. She likes talking to other women
> and listening to women when they want to talk about their problems and
> tries to assist everyone she can.
>
>
> This story is part of the Downtown Eastside Power of Women “In Our Own
> Voices” writing project. For more information and to read more stories,
> please visit http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/author/dtes-power-women-group
>
>
>
> --
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> http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/author/dtes-power-women-group
>
>
>
> --
> https://twitter.com/HarshaWalia
> https://www.facebook.com/nooneisillegal
> http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/author/dtes-power-women-group
>
>
>
> --
> https://twitter.com/HarshaWalia
> https://www.facebook.com/nooneisillegal
> http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/author/dtes-power-women-group
>
>
>
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> https://twitter.com/HarshaWalia
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> http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/author/dtes-power-women-group
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