11/12/2003 News media contact: Tim Tanton · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn.
By Kim Riemland*
SEATTLE (UMNS) - Joyce Riggins says the worst thing about being homeless isn't the rainy climate or the lack of privacy in crowded shelters. It's the way people look at her as if she's done something wrong, or make a point not to look at her at all.
"Being homeless is no fun," Riggins says. "I've battled with depression by being homeless; it's no picnic. And society really kicks us."
Homeless women in Seattle want people to take a closer look at those whom many try not to see. Several of the women have posed for a 2004 calendar that captures their pictures and their stories of struggle and survival.
Riggins has been homeless for six months. Being in the calendar makes her both proud and ashamed, she says. She's had a rough time lately, but she thinks the calendar's title, "Beauty and Strength," captures her experience.
"I don't profess to be the prettiest woman in the world, but I know I'm not the ugliest," she says. "I want the strength, my strength, to come through."
The calendar is designed to spread compassion and understanding. It's a project of Seattle's Church of Mary Magdalene and its Mary's Place day center, which are in the basement of First United Methodist Church downtown. The Church of Mary Magdalene serves homeless and formerly homeless women.
It grew out of United Methodist missionary Rachel Small's wish to honor the women as she completed her two-year assignment working with them. Rachel's mother, Eve Faulkes, teaches graphic design in West Virginia and had given workshops to the women when she visited her daughter. Small and Faulkes thought a calendar could help the women raise money for their programs, and put a face on the issue of homelessness.
"The thing that impressed me about these women was how completely dignified they were," says Faulkes, who took the photos used in the calendar. "They also had probably a whole lot more strength than me, a whole lot more faith than me. We thought it was high time people met a few of those wonderful women."
"I am Miss January," says Hester Garrett, giggling as she holds the calendar up next to her face.
Garrett says homeless women often feel invisible.
"That's a terrible way to feel about your life," she says. "No matter what you are in, you are somebody and your circumstances really have nothing to do with your inner feeling for what you are."
The calendars are available at www.churchofmarymagdalene.org for $10 each. The proceeds benefit the Church of Mary Magdalene and Mary's Place.
The women in the calendar hope those who take the time to look closely at their pictures, and see their beauty and their strength, won't find it so easy to look the other way.
Says Faulkes: "Look them in the face, don't look away like they are some kind of lesser being."
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