Shelley-Ann Thompson, Freelance Writer LAST TUESDAY was a low point for Sandra Brown - the cooking gas ran out, she got word that her father was ill, and she had to borrow (again) $1,000 for the taxi fare from May Pen to Frankfield, Clarendon, and to buy food and vegetables for him.
Brown says she felt like she was being sucked further into the black hole of depression. It's a never-ending fight to go on, explains Brown who works at a small day care centre in May Pen.
These days, there are more lows than highs for the 35-year-old mother of two daughters (ages 10 and 11) who earns $3,200 every fortnight at her regular job. There are times when she feels like someone has punched her in the guts - those are the times when her daughters want some of the pretty little girlie things, like hair clips, that she cannot afford to buy, or when she feels tired to the bone, cleaning up her landlady's premises on the weekend and looking after two little girls, not her own, on Sundays to earn extra money.
The meagre wages, even when added together, get her nowhere, but Brown figures she has no choice.
Carol Bannister, reckons that she does have a choice - exist (supporting four children) solely on her weekly janitorial salary of $3,000 or become somewhat of a con artist to up her weekly income.
She has opted for the latter by serving up almost daily heart-wrenching tales to her co-workers and others who cross her path of starving children and untold hardships.
"I have suffered a lot and I have decided that I will not suffer no more," says Bannister, 42.
The government's recently announced minimum wage increase comes into effect next Monday, January 31, raising the rate by 20 per cent ($400) a week, up to $2,400. The last increase took place in 2003.
It hardly makes a difference to the working poor like Brown and Bannister who say they cannot see a way out of their desperate situation.
In this week's Lifestyle we asked Brown, Bannister and Joan Lennonto tell us how they survive on the little they earn. We also asked Maureen Webber, who works with inner-city communities and sociologist Orville Taylor to comment. Plus, psychiatrist Dr. Earl Wright adds his voice, telling people to turn their situation around.
