In 1992, when I volunteered at Women Against Violence Against Women, which was at the time located in the heart of the seedy downtown eastside in Vancouver, I got a first hard glimpse at the gritty lives of some of the people who lived and worked on these streets.
I went to Journalism school in part to describe the human side of this downtrodden neighbourhood. My goal in writing, taking photographs and interviewing, was to understand WHY people end up down here.
By SIMONE HOEDEL
(published July 1996 in BC Catholic)
People spill out of the packed St. Paul's Church on East Cordova Street and file around the corner into the basement lunchroom of the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement.
There the sisters and Franciscan monks in their brown habits and Knights of Columbus in full regalia chat with families, children, elderly people and the poor of Vancouver's downtown east side as they load their paper plates with fruit, sausages and pastry tarts.
They are celebrating the 70th anniversary of the opening of the Sisters' mission in Vancouver, where some 700 people a day come for soup and sandwiches.
Dayle Moseley, of the Downtown Eastside Residents' Association, claims the area has the poorest median income in Canada. About 60 percent of the population rely on social assistance and live on Skid Row because "they can't afford to live anywhere else," he said.
Sister Carmel Finelli SA, director of the mission at the corner of Cordova and Dunlevy Streets, said that although the sisters and friars also operate a men's clothing room and a day treatment program for sobriety, "basically, we can offer only food." The people need a lot more services, she said.
"The Sister's Place" got its start in 1926 as a Japanese Catholic Mission in Vancouver's Strathcona district, an area which had a high concentration of Japanese immigrants. The sisters evangelized by offering instruction in English. The work was begun by Kathleen O'Melia, a "staunch convert" from Anglicanism, who later became Sister Mary Stella SA.
In October of the same year, four Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement arrived from Graymoor Garrison in New York. The sisters had experience working with Italian immigrants at Saint Clare's Franciscan Mission in New York City.
World War II challenge
By the following year, according to Atonement Society reports, the little mission on Cordova had 266 children registered in Sunday School. The sisters were also visiting homes and hospitals, feeding and clothing the poor, taking care of the sick, preparing children for First Communion and instructing the Japanese in religion as well as English.
Because of the sisters' success, a second Japanese Catholic mission was started in 1931 in Steveston (south of Vancouver in Richmond), where another Japanese immigrant community was growing. Later the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement arrived to help the sisters.
Their greatest challenge came with World War II.
Historical material in archives reveals the tone of that time: During a reception on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, soldiers rushed into the hall warning of an ensuing blackout, one of many to come.
For the safety of the Japanese, a curfew was put in place by a government security commission working out of the daycare building.
After war was declared on Japan, all Japanese within 160 kilometers of the Pacific coast were ordered to move inland. Nine thousand Japanese Canadians in Vancouver were forced to give up their homes, businesses and possessions and evacuated into ghost towns like Greenwood in the interior of the province.
Some of the sisters went with the Japanese. Those who remained in Vancouver continued to work with the poor, including those who took over the jobs left by the Japanese, including immigrants from the prairies who came to work in the shipyards.
After the internment of the Japanese, the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement were forced to reevaluate their mandate.
Archbishop William Duke wrote to Mother Monica of the Mission Dec.1 1942: "The war upset the work here and we are waiting to see what will happen before making any adjustments."
Eventually he gave the sisters permission to start a day nursery for white children "on account of your apostolate to the Japanese being interrupted."
During the 1950s, an informal lunch program evolved for the "poor unemployed men," although the Franciscans had been informally feeding the needy since the tough times of the early 1930s.
By 1955, the sisters were feeding 200-300 people a day. Today, they feed up to 700. A few years ago, it was as high as 1,000, but Sister Carmel said other agencies in the area have alleviated the burden somewhat during the last two years.
The sisters' lunch program is run to a large extent by volunteers and donations. lndividuals, companies and parishes donate food, and volunteers help prepare and distribute 1,500-2,000 sandwiches a day.
Wallace and Pauline Eng, who belong to the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu-Chi and own a farm in Surrey, have donated produce to the sisters for the past three years.
"We know this is a good place because they help needy people every day," said Pauline at the celebration May 18.
Clair Hoye, who has volunteered with the sisters for 13 years, makes sandwiches every morning. "The food lines aren't getting any smaller," she said. "The number of people lined up on the street is increasing. More needy people are trying to make ends meet."
Archbishop Adam Exner OMI of Vancouver, who celebrated Mass for the occasion in the diminutive St. Paul's Church on Cordova Street, said the spirit of St. Francis inspires the sisters' work.
"St. Francis recognized that everything he had was a gift from God," the archbishop said in his homily. "He had a very special place in his heart for the poor."
"The sisters have not only experienced the gift of God, but also recognised that it is a gift to be given," he said. "They have shared their gifts with the poor."
I went to Journalism school in part to describe the human side of this downtrodden neighbourhood. My goal in writing, taking photographs and interviewing, was to understand WHY people end up down here.
By SIMONE HOEDEL
(published July 1996 in BC Catholic)
People spill out of the packed St. Paul's Church on East Cordova Street and file around the corner into the basement lunchroom of the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement.
There the sisters and Franciscan monks in their brown habits and Knights of Columbus in full regalia chat with families, children, elderly people and the poor of Vancouver's downtown east side as they load their paper plates with fruit, sausages and pastry tarts.
They are celebrating the 70th anniversary of the opening of the Sisters' mission in Vancouver, where some 700 people a day come for soup and sandwiches.
Dayle Moseley, of the Downtown Eastside Residents' Association, claims the area has the poorest median income in Canada. About 60 percent of the population rely on social assistance and live on Skid Row because "they can't afford to live anywhere else," he said.
Sister Carmel Finelli SA, director of the mission at the corner of Cordova and Dunlevy Streets, said that although the sisters and friars also operate a men's clothing room and a day treatment program for sobriety, "basically, we can offer only food." The people need a lot more services, she said.
"The Sister's Place" got its start in 1926 as a Japanese Catholic Mission in Vancouver's Strathcona district, an area which had a high concentration of Japanese immigrants. The sisters evangelized by offering instruction in English. The work was begun by Kathleen O'Melia, a "staunch convert" from Anglicanism, who later became Sister Mary Stella SA.
In October of the same year, four Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement arrived from Graymoor Garrison in New York. The sisters had experience working with Italian immigrants at Saint Clare's Franciscan Mission in New York City.
World War II challenge
By the following year, according to Atonement Society reports, the little mission on Cordova had 266 children registered in Sunday School. The sisters were also visiting homes and hospitals, feeding and clothing the poor, taking care of the sick, preparing children for First Communion and instructing the Japanese in religion as well as English.
Because of the sisters' success, a second Japanese Catholic mission was started in 1931 in Steveston (south of Vancouver in Richmond), where another Japanese immigrant community was growing. Later the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement arrived to help the sisters.
Their greatest challenge came with World War II.
Historical material in archives reveals the tone of that time: During a reception on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, soldiers rushed into the hall warning of an ensuing blackout, one of many to come.
For the safety of the Japanese, a curfew was put in place by a government security commission working out of the daycare building.
After war was declared on Japan, all Japanese within 160 kilometers of the Pacific coast were ordered to move inland. Nine thousand Japanese Canadians in Vancouver were forced to give up their homes, businesses and possessions and evacuated into ghost towns like Greenwood in the interior of the province.
Some of the sisters went with the Japanese. Those who remained in Vancouver continued to work with the poor, including those who took over the jobs left by the Japanese, including immigrants from the prairies who came to work in the shipyards.
After the internment of the Japanese, the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement were forced to reevaluate their mandate.
Archbishop William Duke wrote to Mother Monica of the Mission Dec.1 1942: "The war upset the work here and we are waiting to see what will happen before making any adjustments."
Eventually he gave the sisters permission to start a day nursery for white children "on account of your apostolate to the Japanese being interrupted."
During the 1950s, an informal lunch program evolved for the "poor unemployed men," although the Franciscans had been informally feeding the needy since the tough times of the early 1930s.
By 1955, the sisters were feeding 200-300 people a day. Today, they feed up to 700. A few years ago, it was as high as 1,000, but Sister Carmel said other agencies in the area have alleviated the burden somewhat during the last two years.
The sisters' lunch program is run to a large extent by volunteers and donations. lndividuals, companies and parishes donate food, and volunteers help prepare and distribute 1,500-2,000 sandwiches a day.
Wallace and Pauline Eng, who belong to the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu-Chi and own a farm in Surrey, have donated produce to the sisters for the past three years.
"We know this is a good place because they help needy people every day," said Pauline at the celebration May 18.
Clair Hoye, who has volunteered with the sisters for 13 years, makes sandwiches every morning. "The food lines aren't getting any smaller," she said. "The number of people lined up on the street is increasing. More needy people are trying to make ends meet."
Archbishop Adam Exner OMI of Vancouver, who celebrated Mass for the occasion in the diminutive St. Paul's Church on Cordova Street, said the spirit of St. Francis inspires the sisters' work.
"St. Francis recognized that everything he had was a gift from God," the archbishop said in his homily. "He had a very special place in his heart for the poor."
"The sisters have not only experienced the gift of God, but also recognised that it is a gift to be given," he said. "They have shared their gifts with the poor."
