When I was ten, my mother and I were living in White, GA in an abandoned trailor with no heat, electricity but we did have water when the pipes weren't frozen. It was right on my birthday that the landlord kicked us out and my mother just decided to drive until we ran out of gas money.

We ended up in Marshal, TX, where a church gave us gas money to get back to Shreveport, LA where there was a homeless shelter. That shelter was the Evergreen House. During our stay, the name changed to The Providence House and the staff made sure that our Christmas was special. In fact, the best Christmases of my childhood were in the shelter because of the kindness of so many people.

The reason I am writing this is because I want to encourage you to volunteer at a local shelter. You may never know the difference you could make in a child's Christmas. Today, the average age of a homeless American is nine years old which means that there are more families with children in shelters, on the streets, or in a situation where they have no home of their own. Many of these will be in shelters across the United States and around the world this Christmas.

Let's do something this year, everyone. Here is a link to a local shelter directory with a map for the US. Click on it and then your state and you can then narrow it down by city.

http://www.homelessshelterdirectory.org/

Here is a link to a food bank locator if you would like to donate food or volunteer your time in helping out with food.

http://feedingamerica.org/default.aspx

If you are outside the U.S., which many of you (my lovely myspace friends) are, I encourage you to look up YOUR local shelters in your city and country. I have found a few links on Google, and here they are below:

Britain: http://www.ris.org.uk/
http://www.dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Society_and_Culture/Organisations/Homeless/

Switzerland: http://www.viavia.ch/

Canada: Ontario http://www.ottawamission.com/
Ontario http://www.nameres.org/

US and Canada Soup Kitchen Directory
(search by state or province)
http://4homeless.hypermart.net/soup_kitchens.html

Australia: http://www.homeless.org.au/

I am working on putting international links to The Homeless Network, which is a website that I created to help anyone in the US who is about to become homeless or already is homeless find out about shelters, food, medical care, info on homeless statistics, their rights--yes Homeless Americans do have rights you know--and the main objective of THN is to let you know that YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

You can see the current THN at http://thehomelessnetwork.tripod.com

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One of my MySpace friends, Rhonda, posted this up in a bulleting. I am going to jump on board and try to help out. Anyway here is the post!



Wow Christmas time is right around the corner! It's so hard to believe another year has almost passed! We are getting older (but wiser- I hope) Well as we move into the Holidays - We need to keep in mind how our economy has really affected people. This year has been a really hard year for many people. At this time many people are struggling.. with paying billls, supporting there family, and learning how to just cope.


If you know of a local family (Georgia / Atlanta area ) who is really in need right now, going through a rough time, hardships, and don't know how they are going to make it through these holidays.
Please email me or message me

[email protected] and give me a little insight of what we could do to help.


Our family as a whole are taking on the responsiblitly of helping a few families this Holiday season. I don't know how many families we can help.. but we will do our best!!

Please repost to help spread the word!!

Thanks & I hope you all have a great Holiday!

XOXO
Rhonda

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I personally want to thank each and every one of you who participated in the webzine! I could not have accomplished this without yall!

The December 1st Zine features the Atlanta Chapter of the International Lions Club! I am getting new glasses through them and wanted to feature them in this issue!

My feature artists are Eppie aka Paul, Paola from Italy/UK, and Project Squiddy! Be sure to click on their images to check out their websites!

My feature musician is Sweet Corn Grits, and their song is about picking up the pieces after living with domestic violence. They have a great cause and I encourage you to add them as your MySpace friend!

I have no feature writer/poet so I am using one of my pieces, called "Poetically Inclined" Be sure to give me feed back!!

The flash panels you see are from my lovley friends at Zazzle.com! Be sure to check them out! I also have a link to my Zazzle Gallery and if you choose to buy something, all of my profits will go to aid the homeless help organizations and shelters in America! Zazzle is free to join and a great tool to get your artwork out there. You can even sell postage stamps with your art on them!


Also, I encourage you to Digg This Site!! It's on the front page of the zine!

I am accepting submission for writers for the December 15th-April editions and visual artists for the January-April editions!

For Musicians, I am accepting submissions for the February-April editions!!

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I had some eggnog the other day. It made me sick. I was in and out of it yesterday with a fever, chills, but no aches and pain. I popped like 10000 mg of Vitamin C and now its all gone. I am just weak and have NO appetite.

I am just blasting Kanye's new cd. It's so full of energy and it's passing to me :)

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This has NOT been a good week for me. First the food poisoning then an on the job accident last night..I mean Friday nite. I was wearing my slip resistant shoes, but the dustpan was out to get me! Someone left it like right behind me and when I turned to go back to my area, I stepped inside the dustpan and it slipped and I guess it wanted to take me down with it. I landed on my left side and that hurts, but all the bruises are on my right side....weird huh? I have been limping around for the past couple of days. At least I ain't dead huh?

Had an eye exam to day through the Metro Atlanta Lions Club and The Good Samaritan House and will hopefully be getting my new specs around Christmas.

My old ones are broken, glued together and painted over. I get compliments from strangers all the time. I am gonna miss that but at least I will be able to see! I did have a good report from the eye doc: no glaucoma or cataracts and this is probably the worst my eyesight will get in my lifetime! Now for these bruises to heal.

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My mother's boyfriend has had a mental breakdown. We had to kick him out because he refused psychological treatment. He has family here in town and according to him, they wanted nothing to do with him. We found out that it was the opposite. His family had reported him missing a looong time ago and were worried about him.

He was never dangerous, but was like a toddler. He threw away things, paced around. I saw him by the Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless and he looked right at me but didn't recognize me. He started break dancing in the middle of the road like he did before when he and my mother were both on the streets.

He was in the navy and we (his family and my mom and I) think that something had happened to him. According to him, he worked on a nuclear submarine and all, and he is very intelligent.

He asked security to our building if he could get his Veterans ID from me and I gave the guard his ID. The guard called us back later and told us that he(my mom's boo) decided that he didn't want the ID so security is holding it for their files and will be returning it to us soon. I will then give it to his uncle who basically welcomed my mother and I into the family.

My mom is grieving and I am too--I am just not letting her see my pain. Her boyfriend, whose name I am not mentioning due privacy matters, was like an older brother to me.

Mental illness is one of the many causes of homelessness. There is no cure unless you choose to live. It is against the law for a hospital or doctor force you to take the needed meds and many families don't want to deal with the drama of you insisting you are fine and going crazy as a result of you not taking your meds.

We love him and it's cold out there, but if he wanted, he could have gone to a hospital. He refuses treatment and unless he becomes suicidal or a threat to society, then there is nothing we can do but watch him destroy himself.

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To all of my lovely MySpace friends, I am giving you a special gift!

I have FREE prints of my art available! You have to be a MySpace Friend to get the piece. Just go to my photo albums page and click the album Free Art4 Christmas and you can use the MySpace print feature to print as many copies of any number of images you want!

I am doing this for yall because I know times are tough. Maybe you can't afford to give enough this year--go to the dollar store and buy a couple of frames, print off one of my images and give a unique and great gift or just have one for yourself!

If you are NOT my MySpace friend, then feel free to add me! Just let me know that you read the post here at NuTang and I will add you!
http://www.myspace.com/art4thehomeless



Merry Christmas!

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Early this week I woke up and my mom was having trouble breathing. She has been n the hospital ever since. She has emphysema pneumonia copd and a weak heart. They are going to do a Cather on her and see if it is her heart or a blockage in her blood vessels. If the Cather goes well, she may be released Tuesday..if not, well I am going to take it one day at a time. Last week her boyfriend had a mental breakdown n is missing. Week b4 that her disability check was stolen.

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