Poverty | VivirLatino

Posts Tagged ‘poverty’

A moving story brings victory for janitors

5:42 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Health| Justice| Labor · 1 Comment

24 Nov 2006

A group of janitors in Houston have won a tentative case for higher pay and health insurance, helped by the SEIU (Service Employees International Union). The win comes after the moving testimony before attorneys and executives during which one Salvadoran janitor, Ercilia Sandoval (see video), told her story of battling cancer without health coverage:

Last September Sandoval began feeling worn out on the job. She scrubbed bathroom fixtures through headaches and fevers, emptied trash cans with sore arms and a tight back. Lacking health insurance, she couldn’t afford to see a doctor. Nearly a year passed before she forked over $200 for a consultation. A mammogram confirmed her worst fears: She suffered from advanced-stage breast cancer. Yet hospitals in Houston wouldn’t treat her because she was uninsured. She waited two months to be approved for state disability coverage. In June, doctors finally began chemotherapy treatments but say she probably has only a few months to live.

Latino family hardship rates high

6:54 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Family| Health| Money| society · Comments Off

21 Nov 2006

According to data just released by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Latino and African American families are having a hard time making ends meet, and “experience difficulty affording food, lack needed medical care, and/or live in overcrowded conditions.”

The report finds that 28 percent of African American families with children, and 31 percent of families headed by a Latino citizen, experience at least one of the above three hardships at some point during the year, according to the survey. This is double the rate for non-Latino white families with children (14 percent). This disparity largely reflects the fact that poverty rates are several times higher for African American and Latino families than for white families.

This striking data comes from a Census Bureau survey which, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, is valuable in learning about hardship levels, but is at risk of being terminated by Congress. A senior researcher at the Center says “If this survey is eliminated, we will lose one of our best means of understanding what it’s like to be poor in this country.”

Via / U.S. Newswire

Image via Oxfam UK

Buenos Aires opens internet cafes for street kids

2:55 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Argentina| Education| Internet| society · 1 Comment

27 Sep 2006

I am not sure whether to applaud this or ask the question: “why internet cafes and not places for them to live?”:

The government of the Argentine capital inaugurated the first “cybercafe” for children and adolescents who live on the street, the first of five of these facilities expected to open in the city.

More than a simple cafe with internet access or just a place where one can play games online, the new facility is a “learning and recreation” space to help better the living conditions of “these children that have lost almost everything,” said Jorge Telerman, Mayor of Buenos Aires, during the opening of the cafe.

According to Spain’s 20 Minutos, these cafes will offer, on top of internet access, recreational and educational activities, and light meals.

The idea for this project was supposedly born from data that showed that homeless children in Argentina spent 60% of the money they receive panhandling on cybercafes.

While on the surface it seems like a great idea — providing internet access, and therefore access to information, education, and the world in general to these children — my mind can’t help but wonder why more basic needs aren’t covered first, like a home, foster parents, meals and education.

What do you think? Is this a good idea or does it overlook these children’s well-being?

Via / 20 Minutos

Image via 26Noticias.com.ar

Full House

12:01 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Family| Georgia| Immigration| society · Comments Off

18 Jan 2006

It seems that officials in the cradle of the “New Latino South”, Georgia, are looking to make sure too many people don’t occupy a single dwelling. Too many immigrants, that is. In reponse to complaints about overcrowded homes in the state, Georgia officials are inspecting dwellings housing numerous Latino immigrants:

In Cobb County, housing code officers say they need more stringent regulations to handle a growing number of complaints about overcrowded homes. Last week, county zoning officials proposed an ordinance to reduce the number of unrelated people who can live together under one roof from six to four.

Immigration and poverty related: qué sorpresa

1:00 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration · Comments Off

7 Nov 2005

The headline for an article from yesterday’s Washington Times affirms my idea that the “art” of headline writing is lost (it was reaffirmed this weekend in the Sunday NYT with the headline of an article about Israeli spas: “Going to a spa? Mazel Tov!”): “Immigration, Poverty Linked”. The article, nonetheless, is interesting:

So “immigration can have a large impact on the labor market,” he said, adding: “The wages of high school dropouts have fallen between 5 [percent] to 8 percent in the past 20 years.”

A recent report released by the Pew Hispanic Research Center showed that Hispanics, who constitute more than half of immigrants entering the U.S. today, accounted for a 68 percent share in the growth of the nation’s “poverty population” between 1990 and 2000.

Via / The Washington Times and Hispanic Tips

Pew: Latinos attend crowded schools

7:04 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Education · 6 Comments

1 Nov 2005

Interesting findings from a study by the Pew Hispanic Center, released today:

The report finds more than half of Latinos (56-percent) attend the nation’s largest public high schools — those schools whose enrollment size ranks them in the 90th percentile or higher. That’s compared with 32-percent of blacks and 26-percent of whites.

The report also finds about 37-percent of Latinos attend the 10-percent of schools with the highest student-teacher ratios. Just 14-percent of black students and 13-percent of whites attend those schools, which have a student-teacher ratio greater than 22-to-1 compared with the national average of 16-to-1.

Pretty compelling numbers. I think this is even more interesting in light of some recent chatter about “underachieving” Latino students on blogs and in other media.

The article goes on:

“The characteristics of high schools matter for student performance. Hispanic teens are more likely than any other racial or ethnic group to attend public high schools that have the dual characteristics of extreme size and poverty.”

“Extreme size and poverty” — if those aren’t two huge distractions from learning (”my teacher has no time for me, nor do my parents because they are working their asses off to make ends meet”) then I don’t know what is.

Via / All Headline News

Pew Hispanic Center

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