Between hustling, dates and standing in line at the food bank, some prostitutes are holing up in the city's' slum alleys and noisy shelters, turning pages rather than tricks. Women in the Downtown Eastside devoured their latest book club selection before meeting the author for a debate Tuesday. "A lot of people think working women can't read or aren't interested in things like literature," said Beverley Ranger, a prostitute peer counsellor who has been making the flophouse rounds hooking girls up with books.
"It doesn't surprise me, that assumption. Nothing surprises me anymore, but it's not like they didn't go to school.
"A lot of them had normal jobs and normal lives before they ended up down here."
Life on the streets feeds people's desire to escape and books are as comforting to hookers, addicts and homeless people as they are to Oprah Winfrey.
"They have no privacy down here, they're so visible on the street, in the shelters. Everyone knows everyone and they are constantly under the microscope of the system," said Marika Sandrelli, an education co-ordinator with Prostitution Alternatives Counselling Education (PACE).
But just as Oprah would roll her eyes at the selection of cheap romance and other dog-eared throw-aways people donate to shelters, so do the people living in them.
"They have no choice in their lives," said Sandrelli.
"They aren't given a choice of where to sleep, who they sleep with, what they eat, when they eat. When it comes to something so personal as reading, they're going to want to pick a book that interests them."
That occurred to Mary Trentadue, owner of the independent 32 Books shop in posh Kerrisdale.
"For years I have wanted to do something to help the women on the Downtown Eastside. But I didn't know what I could do. I wanted to just drive down and give them books, but I didn't know if it would be welcome."
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2004/09/27/646015-cp.html
"It doesn't surprise me, that assumption. Nothing surprises me anymore, but it's not like they didn't go to school.
"A lot of them had normal jobs and normal lives before they ended up down here."
Life on the streets feeds people's desire to escape and books are as comforting to hookers, addicts and homeless people as they are to Oprah Winfrey.
"They have no privacy down here, they're so visible on the street, in the shelters. Everyone knows everyone and they are constantly under the microscope of the system," said Marika Sandrelli, an education co-ordinator with Prostitution Alternatives Counselling Education (PACE).
But just as Oprah would roll her eyes at the selection of cheap romance and other dog-eared throw-aways people donate to shelters, so do the people living in them.
"They have no choice in their lives," said Sandrelli.
"They aren't given a choice of where to sleep, who they sleep with, what they eat, when they eat. When it comes to something so personal as reading, they're going to want to pick a book that interests them."
That occurred to Mary Trentadue, owner of the independent 32 Books shop in posh Kerrisdale.
"For years I have wanted to do something to help the women on the Downtown Eastside. But I didn't know what I could do. I wanted to just drive down and give them books, but I didn't know if it would be welcome."
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2004/09/27/646015-cp.html
