"Man in Box" or "-N-the-Box". oil on canvas. by Manuel Compito. Lamp Art Project.
Countless thousands of persons in Los Angeles alone are homeless. The estimate is 100,000 in Los Angeles. A high percentage of these persons are disabled with mental illness. Thousands sleep in cardboard boxes or in make-shift tents.
Then the police are ordered to "clear the streets" bulldozing the tents, with all the tattered belongings that person may have. These persons might have had a family photo album as one of their last few possessions. Now even that is gone.
These last remnants of their connection with their humanity and heritage are heaved into dumpsters by the bulldozers and skip-loaders.
In fact, when Xochitl Gaby Casillas came to Los Angeles, homeless, some 5 years ago, the only single possession she had, which she clutched to her body, was a photo album of her little brothers and sisters, from whom her severe schizophrenia, and an inadequate mental health care system, had separated her.
When the tents are bulldozed, the persons are told to go "elsewhere". Many of these persons are left bewildered as to what happened, their mental illness now exacerbated by yet another diagnosis, that of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
What can we do?
Changes must take place both at levels of governmental policy, and then at an individual level.
Those persons that have entered an esteeming, life affirming, program such as Lamp Community and its Lamp Art Project manifest radical changes in their lives.
If you would like to find out how you can help the LAMP ART PROJECT, or LAMP COMMUNITY, or to contact us, for any reason, by e-mail Click Here.
Or simply send an email to the project manager, at rory@lampartproject.org
If you would like to donate immediately, through LAMP COMMUNITY,
(click here).
Please mention clearly if the LAMP ART PROJECT WEBSITE has been of significance to you.
Remember, the Lamp Art Project is still a tiny, and very fragile, fledgling offspring of Lamp Community and that : The painting is not yet finished.
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