The pictures in the newspapers, on TV and the Internet are devastating. The massive damage of the 7.0 earthquake is hard to imagine even when faced with screen shots. The international response to pull people from the rubble and get supplies in is heartening as is the millions of dollars raised by individual donors and a national star-studded telethon. At the same time, however, what is disheartening is to see the children. UNICEF estimates 380,000 children had already lost one or both parents before the quake and were left homeless when their orphanages collapsed. Now, as many as one million more have been left without one or both parents following the earthquake. UNICEF has warned the s

Seven years ago, as I lay in a hospital bed, amazed to be alive, depression knocking on the door, I made a commitment to find joy everyday. It’s that commitment to joy that led me to work at Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services years ago. I am the Manager of an art program for women who are going through hard times. "Hard times" is much more complicated than that very broad term. We tend to visualize the women working the streets or men panhandling at the intersections, and shopping carts with worldly belongings. I don’t expect an explanation from the women who come to this program but eventually their story comes out. Stories of illness, lost jobs, lost love, lost dignity, expensive me