[Update]:
betson08 reminds us about this challenge from Bubbanomics.
Bubbanomics issued a challenge this weekend - he'll match all contributions up to a total of $1000 through today. So, if you donate right now it counts double!
If you donate, leave a comment here or for bubbanomics about how much you donated.
ccamp made a comment over at Native American Netroots that I want to share and focus on. I then want to share a personal story of how much I think this fundraiser being successful will save lives by giving hope, and conclude with what betsyny has already told us.
One of the things ccamp mentions at Native American Netroots is “an epidemic of child suicides and other social ills all of which can be traced to the grinding poverty and its lack of a solution.â€
(Bold & underline mine)
From “I Want Olbermann to Cover PBWH" at NAN
each rez has one
I've read about the help being given to PBWH and I also think Olbermann would be a good reporter if you can get him. The sad thing is that each and every rez in South Dakota has an under funded, desperate woman’s house that is struggling to survive on pitiful funds. Some on larger reservations where the needs are even greater, at least in numbers, than Cheyenne River.
Here where I live on Rosebud, the "White Buffalo Calf Pipe Woman’s Society" is doing the same hard job on very limited resources. Tribes are doing what they can but with winter coming on they'll be spending their discretionary funds on heating needs. Private and foundation funding is hard to get and even harder to maintain for the long run, yet the needs are increasing with the population.
Welfare reform has been a disaster on the rez because the poverty is endemic in a population where 75% of the population is unemployed. We're seeing an epidemic of child suicides and other social ills all of which can be traced to the grinding poverty and its lack of a solution.
I hope someone like Olberman can use the PBWH to highlight the whole problem.
Next, I want to share a personal story, because I think this fundraiser being successful will save lives by giving hope. How many, I don’t know. I wouldn’t share it unless I thought it would be helpful to others. Suffice it to say, hope through someone to talk to would’ve been the difference between a 20 gauge shotgun to my head or not at 17.
I was 17 years old and my codependence combined with normal adolescent neurosis and feelings of abandonment left me feeling absolutely hopeless. I was raised in a good family and we had a good house, but New Years Eve of ’87 found me calling suicide hotlines – but nobody answered.
I further spiraled into hopelessness thinking, “New Years Eve, they know it’s a night of higher suicide rates, that’s it.†I made the decision to end my life.
It was really a strange feeling going into my parent’s room, putting a shell in a 20 gauge shotgun with tears streaming down my face, and pointing it to my head. I had taken the safety off. I just wanted someone to help me and talk to me. Nonetheless, I put enough pressure on the trigger for it to go off, but I saw something out of the right corner of my right eye. The gun didn’t fire and I was amazed that it didn’t. I put it to my head again and these thoughts seemed to be streamed into my mind, “If you do this, you’re one selfish bastard.â€
I put the gun up.
I sponsored someone 13 years later, and when he committed suicide via an overdose I understood why. However, many were at his funeral and I still remember thinking, “I wish you could have seen then how many people care now.â€
As I stated in the beginning, I think this fundraiser being successful will save lives by giving hope. I really believe that. Caroline Myss talked about a man on a bridge who thought, “If one person isn’t kind to me, I’m jumping (paraphrasing),†and how giving hope and kindness can literally save someone’s life. That’s precisely what I see PBWH doing, giving hope that will save lives. Furthermore, I don’t ever want to have to think “I wish you could have seen then how many people care now†again.
Rape survivors are also 13 times more likely to attempt suicide than not crime victims and 6 times more likely than victims of other crimes.
Violence against women prompts many Rosebud Reservation suicides
Some of them have also been raped and contemplated suicide, she said.
Please donate,read what betsyny has to say about it,
Pretty Bird Woman House Update: YOU are buying THIS house!
If you haven't donated yet, you can make a huge difference right now because they're at a crucial point in the house purchase process, and things are still a little shaky. Go here to donate and get all the info you could possibly want on the shelter if you have missed the story up until now.
There will be needs after the house purchase, which is why I am keeping the goal at $70,000 despite the fact that of the 2 houses available, they're bidding on the lower-priced one.
and as ccamp says, let’s “use the PBWH to highlight the whole problem.â€
A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.
Mohandas Gandhi
Important issue
When I first covered this issue I tried to put it into a broader context of Native American issues. As usual I took too broad an approach...and got criticized for seemingly downplaying PBWH. That was not my intention. I wanted to show other aspects of the issues:
1. The Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center on the Yankton Sioux Reservation. (along the lines of "there's one on every rez")
2. Education (e.g. the American Indian College Fund).
3. economics (e.g. Native American Bank and Native Energy)
4. political power (e.g. the Indigenous Democratic Network founded by Kalyn Free).
Now I might add the Lakota Fund.
Of course all of that is just the tip of the ice berg, but it is what I have come across over the years.
PBWH really resonates for many people. It makes the issue concrete. My hope is that the house can be saved AND used as a jumping off point for more long term efforts.