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With joblessness at a 26 year high, many people across the country are getting a crash course in coping with the stress of not having a steady pay check. Rookie Reporter Erikka Diaz, like many of her neighbors in South Bronx, has lived in poverty her whole life. Her family knows well the anxiety that comes with constantly having to scrape enough money together to pay the rent, buy groceries, and have enough left over for all the things kids want, like going to the prom, or a new pair of sneakers.
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Related Pieces
Piece Description
With joblessness at a 26 year high, many people across the country are getting a crash course in coping with the stress of not having a steady pay check. Rookie Reporter Erikka Diaz, like many of her neighbors in South Bronx, has lived in poverty her whole life. Her family knows well the anxiety that comes with constantly having to scrape enough money together to pay the rent, buy groceries, and have enough left over for all the things kids want, like going to the prom, or a new pair of sneakers.
Broadcast History
WNYC Morning Edition - October 5, 2009
Transcript
HOST INTRO: With joblessness at a 26 year high, many people across the country are getting a crash course in coping with the stress of not having a steady pay check. Rookie Reporter Erikka Diaz has lived in poverty her whole life, like many of her South Bronx neighbors. Erikka's family knows well the anxiety that comes with constantly having to scrape enough money together to pay the rent, buy groceries, and have enough left over for all the things that kids want.
Narration: I live in a society where you have to be tough and get fresh--that means sophisticated, with clothes, cars, and phones or people will look at you like you're nothing. And this isn't Manhattan, where a Gatorade costs freaking three dollars. This is the South Bronx, where a lot of people live on minimum wage jobs or, like my family, on welfare.
Erikka: Darina, wake up, school.
Narration: Four of my mom's eight kids...
Read the full transcript
Additional Credits
Sanda Htyte, Associate Producer
Courtney Stein, Assistant Producer
Marianne McCune, Editor
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jocelyn rivera
Posted on January 03, 2012 at 06:04 PM | Permalink
:)
This piece to me was very moving it made me really think about how fourtunate i am
i may not have every thing that i want but like erikkas mom ,my mom still tries to make things work
my mom is not so different from erikkas mom in the sense that she gets very upset and stressed over money problems and takes pills to put her to sleep at night though it has never got to the point were my mom was very sick and went to the hospital but theres always a chance .
i can really relate to erikka because she tries every thing to help her mom from selling candy to trying to find a job i do the same thing trying to find little jobs here and there to help my mom out in any way i can
i really loved that even through all of the things she goes through she still stays family orientated
all in all i think that this piece was very moving and interesting i really liked it