However, beneath these trees and down the roads that climb their way up the rolling hills I see people struggling to live. Six out of ten families lives under the poverty level in Mississippi . I live and work at Camp Sister Spirit Folk School where we maintain a privately funded food bank open to anyone, at any time. I know families that must choose between health care and groceries. Some live in houses that most people think have been abandoned long ago. The lack of a vehicle or money to put gas in it keeps many people who are hard working from maintaining employment, if they can find it to begin with. Gas prices and the cost of living go up. Wages stay the same. People complain that they make just enough money to get back and forth to work. “I am never going to get ahead it seems, thanks for the groceries, I did not have any money left out of my paycheck once I paid bills to buy any.”

After Katrina hit, things have gotten worse for the already poor people in the region. Katrina hit dead on southern Mississippi . Our campus was torn all to pieces, including a huge tree that sliced our office in half. We were without electricity for a month as was most everyone else in the Pine Belt. We had friends who rushed to our Folk School as quickly as they could and our little private nonprofit organization distributed over 3,000,000 lbs. of goods to folks in our area. This included food, water, generators and just about anything, you can think of. We did this without any assistance from FEMA or the Red Cross. Alternative groups came through for the poor folks in my area. Amish women sent cookies; the Union for Reform Judaism sent flats of canned goods, and pagan folks as far away as Australia sent things to us to help our neighbors. People could not go and buy generators. Most had no way to travel to agencies for assistance. Most have still not recovered from a natural disaster that pushed them further into poverty.

We have had people ask us why we chose to set up a Folk School run primarily by out lesbians in the middle of the Mississippi woods. I respond that this is our “ground zero” and this is where we need to be. This became blatantly apparent after Katrina. Our federal government failed to take care of us. They have forgotten us again. I will keep beating the drums for all the poor people in Mississippi who deserve a better life. Poverty is my enemy and I know her personally. She is not welcome here anymore and we need help to battle all the reasons she thrives in Mississippi . Please do not forget about us. We need your help to fight the good fight.

Andie Gibbs-Henson, M.Ed.

Camp Sister Spirit Folk School

Ovett , Mississippi