My name is Tammy Rojas, I’m a member of the Lancaster Healthcare Rights Committee of Put People First! PA and I’m on the Coordinating Committee of the Pennsylvania Poor People’s Campaign a National Call for Moral Revival. When I read about the recent reports in the paper about the “underperforming” schools and heard discussions about it and its relation to poverty, it hit home for me, and I instantly thought of the many articles that came out this past year talking about a rise in adolescent suicides.
The first time I remember contemplating suicide, I was in third grade. The first time I came very close to following it out, I was in 7th grade, the only thing that has prevented me from following through it over the years, was the fear of not doing it correctly. Thanks to Put People First! PA and the Poor People’s Campaign a National Call for Moral Revival, I find myself wanting to live, despite the struggle, because I have found community and encouragement.
Mental health issues in adolescence can stem from many different things, for today, let's focus on trauma related to poverty. When all you feel is pain, and life is nothing but a daily struggle to survive, you tend to stop caring about performing well in school let alone even attend.
It’s a struggle to do homework, when you’re homeless and hungry. It’s a struggle to get up early and be out the door by 7am, when you just went to bed at 3am, because you spent the night working and studying. It’s a struggle to graduate high school when all you know of life, is fighting daily for survival. I applaud those who make it through this to reach graduation, I on the other hand, did not.
We must not blame the children, parents, or teachers for the poverty in our school districts, poverty is a systemic issue, and that’s why we must actively work towards fundamental systemic change in our society. We must nurture our children, encourage them, come together as a community, see to it, that the children, parents and teachers in our community have their basic human needs met so learning, teaching and living can be their focus as well as ours.
That’s why tonight we are here to demand the following, make poverty and the interlocking injustices a prime focus going in 2020. Call a public meeting to discuss poverty in our community. Join us and support us as we begin to push the Lancaster County Commissioners and the state government to do the same!
Poverty is NOT only a city or urban issue, poverty stretches all across our County. The City AND County Government, AND the community, MUST actively work together on this. We MUST cross the rural/urban divide and we MUST come together if we truly wish to be successful in our fight against poverty in our community. Our lives are on the line here, this is not an option.
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