|
Women talk about the
different reasons why they and others can not come to literacy and upgrading
programs. Usually women face more than one barrier.
-
Sometimes we've seen that the school has been the straw
that broke the camel's back. And I don't think it's intentional. But they just
cannot cope with the pressures of the home environment as well as having
homework and family problems.
I've seen that a couple of times where it's pushed a couple
of them over the deep end...And how many don't we know about?
*********************
-
How do you help-make it better-when so much is difficult-no
money, no support, no daycare, the work is too hard, didn't get cheque on time,
house broken into, car broke down...
**********************
-
Things that stop women from coming to school: can't afford
it, got a job, shifts, time-table doesn't fit, needs to come at night, no
transportation/no buses, two small kids, no childcare or transportation, one
had a babysitter quit, too tired after work and kids.
*********************
-
It was an interesting case of a single mum. She was working
full time, and going to [40 miles from her home] twice a week to take two
courses and then coming to this organization to get tutoring. She was totally
stressed out.
We only met a couple of times but we felt sorry for her
because she could not cope with what she was doing. She did drop one subject
and I think perhaps she dropped both of them shortly after ...
She was stuck in a waitress job and she didn't want to be
there. She felt that she could upgrade herself because she really wanted to do
it but for all those reasons, she couldn't get through it all.
***********************
-
Well just generally, I think we need more day care centres
... and probably more help financially.
-
I have a neighbor and she's having the problems of
babysitting and transportation. I told her I can give her a ride. So she says
she's too scared to go back to school. Now she's moving away, I can't help her
at all.
***********************
-
In the program that I'm working in most of the students
work. Definitely one job, maybe two Domestic workers don't have a lot of
control over their free time, which is an issue. And women who work in
factories where they feel they can't turn down over time. So there's like work
situations that make it difficult.
And whatever the actual work situation, there's always
demands of being at home. For example there was a woman coming to X who had two
kids and a husband who was injured at work and he wasn't very supportive. He
didn't disallow her from going, but he didn't make it any easier for her. She
still had to do all the cooking and everything when she came home. Most of the
time she brought the kids with her when she came. And having kids around is a
bit difficult.
*********************
-
When those things happen, when the economic situation gets
so bad, the economy gets so bad, if there is a partner there, a male partner,
then often times other things show their faces. Like, you often in economic
crises see more violence...So we can suspect there has been an increase in
violence given the other kinds of information that we have. Plus, if you're
worried about food, you aren't coming to any programs.
**********************
***********************
|