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by Carrie Swearingen
for News USA, April 2000
photo by James Bowey
 (St.
Johns Island, SC) - Josephine Gadsden, pictured right, is elated.
Workers, funded by Catholic Extension, miraculously appeared to
fix her crumbling home on the sea island of St. Johns, South Carolina.
In all, 223 homes grabbed face lifts.
African-Americans remain steeped in culture here, remembering slaves
who first arrived in 1670 from rice growing regions of Africa.
The slaves brought a distinctive culture of language, dress, basketry,
art, dance and song. For generations they fished, farmed and lived
largely untouched by modern life. Modern building plans now run
wild, however, leaving long-time residents struggling to stay afloat
on fixed incomes.
Since the Civil War, the African-American culture has fallen into
poverty. Immense plantations fell to ruin as rice farmers could
not contend with rising work force costs and cotton fell to the
ravages of the boll weevil.
Left were ex-slaves who started working small subsistence farms.
On Wadmaw Island, for instance, the average annual income is $6,000
and over half live 200 percent below the poverty line.
Gadsden tells how $520 from her late husband’s Social Security
check stretches to feed and clothe herself and 8-year-old great-grandson,
pays her utilities, property tax and squeezes out the 11 prescriptions
she keeps on the kitchen table for her battle with diabetes and
hypertension.
Oceanfront development began swallowing already limited land, threatening
the locals. Utilities like water, sewer and electricity for coastal
resorts are laid past the homes of long-time residents who are too
poor to tap into them.
In the Diocese of Charleston, Sister Mary Carol Wentworth, OLM,
launched Our Lady of Mercy Outreach to provide food, medicine, clothing,
GED and job training to affected residents. Yet ten days after the
program’s debut, Hurricane Hugo devastated the coast. Sister
turned to the recognized need of home rebuilding, knowing that most
were substandard to begin with. She calls the program N.A.I.L.S.
(Neighborly Assistance in Living Safely), and through a grant from
Catholic Extension––the organization which supports Catholic
missionary work in America––carpenters and other skilled
tradesmen began rebuilding homes and lives.
Often encouraged to sell the land under her firmly planted feet,
Gadsden says, "I’d rather have my home repaired than a
million dollars."
For more information on how you can help the N.A.I.L.S. program
or other missionary sites, call Catholic Extension toll-free at
1-888-473-2484 or visit www.catholic-extension.org
on the web.
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