The Queen of North Shields Living with Poverty

People here can't get a job. The north-east is probably the worst

place in Britain to get a job. you think of yourself as poor?

poor. No, you're not poor.I feel sorry for some people, I really do.

I think, you know what they gev you to live on, how do you do it.

There's nothing called benefits in Africa. I'm worth more dead anyway.

I've been rich before my mam well. The children are different because

of their culture. They are growing up into. They live fast, die young

and have a gd looking corpse. good. You are making a difference

to my area. Thank you. I'm The Queen of North Shields. It just

feels so good. Josephine moved to the meadow Well estate in North

Shields as a refugee from Zimbabwe 13 years ago. Her husband, Michael,

works as a nurse. They send home between �400 and �700 a month to

support their extended family. would like to send some money to

Zimbabwe. Half an hour.Thank you so much. I have written "father

it's Queen Makoti. They call me Queen. They called call mi the

white person. That means you are a provider. A provider or you are

rich. Although they are seen as rich by their family in Africa,

they live on one of the most deprived estates in Britain, Meadow

Well. A stigmatised estate, particularly after the riots in

1991, the charity shop here supports the local community. It's

run by volunteer Jackie with some help from Audrey, who has lived on

Meadow Well for 80 years. I think everyone is struggling. I think the

poverty line at the minute is just, like, people that son the dole.

People that have got children. Can't afrd to buy Christmas

presents. That is why we keep the shop. Unemployment on Meadow Well

is more than double the national average. I think because nobody's

quite sure what next year is going to bring we are all

approximatelying our horns in this year. People are talking about fuel

prices up, petrol is up. Nobody knows what is round the corner for

everybody's jobs. So play it easy. Everything is going up mind, isn't

it though? I mean bread, milk. Some shops the milk is �1 for four pints

some shops it's �1.20. Josephine's family have a Rosie eyed view of

life in Britain. In Britain you get money and everything you wan. If

people ask you for anything they get. It they don't know that we go

to charity shops. We work hard. Now my washing machine isn't working. I

do hand wash. I do the business the hair. Everything, trying to make

all the ends meet. I feel sorry for some people, I really do. They give

you to live on, how do you do it. They say find work. Where is the

work. Comet is closing down. There is another load of people out of

work. They are telling people to go out and find work. There is poverty

everywhere. It doesn't get easy when you are poor. Been there done

it. Have you to pick yourself back up. There are these people who

don't have the oomph to sort themselves out. People can't afford

to feed their kids through no fault of their own. There are hundreds of

empty houses. People are sleeping on the streets because they can't

get a place. In some ways poverty is tougher in Britain. A nurse in

Africa has a higher status in here and can employ a maid. In Britain

they do everything themselves. Africa think when you are in the UK

you are in heaven. They don't believe how much work the UK woman,

Queen, has. I'm doing this washing because my washing machine broke. I

have sent money last week, �300. I could have bought a new one.

Michael's job as a nurse means working five or six nights a week

in care homes. Your trousers are as if they have been in the mouth of a

cow! Takes forever. That's why I hate this job! He earns �12 an hour.

Bye. Michelle, daddy is going to work. Bye. Bye. You don't want a

hug? Yeah.Yeah. See you tomorrow. The long hours mean he's relatively

well off for the community he lives in, but sending a third of his

earnings home makes him feel poor. I drive back tomorrow morning at

8.00 am. That is when when I finish my shift. Sometimes he's so tired

he doesn't have a social life because he has to sleep during the

day when everybody else is just having a nice time. Then he wakes

up. He has to d his duties as a father. Then has to rush to go to

work. He drives for hours. Michael supports 20 people in Zimbabwe.

They think I'm rich. Some of them think as soon as you get here it's

easy to get a job and get loads of money. It's not like, that you have

to work for the money. He will come home and phone me being sick from

adult nursing. I send �400 to �500 a month. When it gets a bit

difficult for them I always put an extra �200, which makes it normally

�600 to �700 a month. I have to work very hard to get that kind of

money. Josephine was first housed on the Meadow Well in temporary

refugee accommodation. After eight years, she became a British citizen

and was given a council house that no-one else was bidding for, at the

least popular end of the estate. She used her right-to-buy and took

out a mortgage on the house, making her one of only 10% of Meadow Well

residents that own their own homes. In this country people don't know

what poverty is. They think if they don't have pizza that night, then

they are poor. Or maybe if they can't afford to take their children

to a cinema or something, then they are poor. They haven't seen poverty.

I survived with �3. �3! For the whole week. Josephine's neighbour

John was a taxi driver before he lost his job. He is now retirement

age, Josephine finds it hard he smokes when he doesn't work. Have

you started smoking again? Course I vfplt You are not serious.Live

fast, die young and have a good- looking corpse. Two out of three

ain't bad. He's going to die, very, very soon. Doesn't make any

difference. I'm worth more dead anyway. John, honestly, sit down.

We have to talk about this seriously. No. I'm going to finish

my cigarette off. I've started smoking again because my chest is

bad. John, seriously, don't take life as a joke. If you don't take

life easy what is the point of living? I don't smoke but I take

life easy. I take life easy.If you are making yourself useful not

staying at home doing absolutely nothing you wouldn't be thinking

about... I don't do anything when I'm at home. All I do is cook their

teas. Cooking, cooking, cooking. I think this benefits system

everybody know that is if you don't have any money at all the

Government will intervene somehow, somewhere to help you. In African

countries there isn't anything like. That if you don't have, you don't

have. If you don't work, you don't get. That's simple. Keep your feet

still Geordie, hinny, let's be happy for the night. For we may not

sob happy through the day. Give us this bit comfort, keep your feet

still Geordie and drive me bonnie dreams away. You have never heard

that one before have you? I will have something nice to remember

when you are gone. You will really soon if you keep on smoking.

are a long time dead. Josephine's and Michael's daughter was born in

Britain. The aspirations of a British child are new to them.

# Wuh uh oh uh uh oh uh uh oh wuh uh oh!

# If you like it you should have put a ring on it... #

We will get you an outfit. There is a difficult balance to be struck

between helping family back home and giving Michelle a normal

childhood in Britain. Our expenses are so scary. Gymnastics. Then

break dancing. I don't even want to calculate how much it is. Very,

very expensive. You have to do it for them, because we didn't get

that chance when we were growing up. #colouryellow he wants a new

generator. Probably the best one will be �500. Michel's idea of

poverty is different from her African born relatives. Disneyland

is not a necessity. Disneyland is when everything else has been done.

How about that. My friend has a playroom and a bedroom. She has got

a Sky age D television in her REM. Some of her cousins cannot afford

to go to school. They think if they do not have an Nintendo Wii or an

XBox or a Sky television, they are poorer. You are telling me now.

Children here are different because of their culture. We did not have

individual beds, but we were were not poor. Josephine, were we pause

or? There were poorer people than ours. Josephine it was a nurse in

Zimbabwe but found her qualifications were not recognised

by the NHS. She took a degree in social work but has yet to find a

job. The Cedarwood Centre help some of the poorest residents of Meadow

Well, offering a free Pep best and bingo on Thursdays. -- breakfast.

cannot play. You shout house! All Blacks, 22. All the threes,

still she think she is poor because you cannot afford to go to

Disneyland. I am polar. I am on the breadline. She is not poor, she is

in between. Have you got a car? are not poor. I class people as

poor, who are unemployed, they live on the breadline, they're in a

council flat. They have not got a job. They have got no savings. They

do know where their next penny is coming from. Somebody who has got a

bought house and cars, they are not poor. Meanwhile, Michelle's

expectations remain high. How was Disneyland? Good.Did you see

Minnie Mouse? Yeah.I will be rich before my mum. I'm more successful.

What? I do not do African things. They eat nearly everything they get.

I am very choosy. They do not have all the new clothes and I cannot

live without getting something you at least, because I like the new

things. You are scared to be African. I am a quarter Geordie,

quarter from London and have African. I wish there was have the

American, like Beyonce. Josephine is focused on improving the

situation of her family back home. She is planning to send a generator

in a big shipment with clothes and shoes for her family and friends.

Roughly we are looking at �400. It should be able to provide

electricity for them. We are looking for a diesel one if

possible, because it will be cheaper for them. We do not have

any generators. Could we order one in? We want one which will give

them electricity for the house? For the French, lighting and the

television. -- French. Michael has received a video of his dad showing

in the new pigsty he is building. They want him to have his own

projects so he can support themselves in future. -- himself.

It is interesting to see him, at the age of 85. He is doing very

well. If you tell him to slow down, he will not. He will say OK, he

will do the plaster in, he will not get anyone to do it. I tell him he

is 85, look for someone else. It makes him feel better when he is

doing things. If they get the generator, they will have

electricity at home. If she buys it over there, it means that transport

is there already. They decide it would be better for Josephine to

fly back and sort out the generator as the cost of the shipping is

almost as much as a flight. A low. How are you? The just the thing is

a regular in the charity shop which means that she supports the local

community and benefits from it. needed to pack some staff, but I

will need a huge discount! We will try and do you add this account.

There are loads of clothes. What do you want? Little boys and girls.

Sort out what you want and we will do a deal. One OK. How about all of

them of for �10? The go on then.It must cost you more to ship over.

it is very expensive. How are you. I wanted to do your hair. The shop

is a good place to do some local business. Cut and blow-dry.

much is it? In Edinburgh, I pay �15. How about �10? That is fine. Where

were you doing it? To you a house? I have not got any carpets. We are

still moving in. No carpet?We could do it in the public. We could

do it in the other room. Maggie and her husband came down from Scotland

to run the pub on the estate when its reputation got so bad that no

one else would take it on. We do not look after our own people. That

is a fact. Charity begins at home. We should not be giving countries

abroad. We should be looking after our own people. Look at this estate.

Look at the unemployment, the poverty. The people you cannot get

jobs. It is probably the worst place in Britain to get a job. Look

at us, we do not take a wage from here, we cannot afford to. We break

even. That is basically how we are doing it. If we took a weight, we

would have closed down. This government is more interested in

foreigners. This it is cheap labour. That is why the country is in MS.

Too many foreigners. That will always be the case. They're getting

a better life. More stop the people here would not want to work for it

little money. They do not want to do care work or cleaning jobs. As a

result, the foreigners, they take anything. They will do anything.

Descended to other countries, but they do not realise there is more

poverty in any other countries. At the North East, the poverty is 100%

are really down. People go to Tesco's, the reduce it, the amount

of people that are there to get a reduced need and back to bed in a

battered tins because they do not have the money. In Africa, they

understand what they have got. I never thought I would live in a

society where we would have to beg for food. That is why it is a

community shop. In two or three years' time, you will find

everybody shopping in at charity shops. It will get worse. These are

men's clothes and then girls. I have collected shoes. I bought them

for about �1. I love that the little shoes. I am always thinking

about other people and for me to be seen throwing away a valuable shoes,

I have got the feeling that God would punish me. It is not a good

thing to hoard staff. Throwing a waste of is the worst, if you would

be knowing how other people would feel like appreciating that.

Josephine flies to Zimbabwe with the clothes she has collected and

money they have saved for a generator. She has not seen her

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 68 seconds

family for 13 years. She is able to give them the clothes herself. She

also goes to the City to buy a generator for granddad. -- city.

The cost of the generator is equal to 56 hours of nursing for Michael

in Britain. The Josephina Lisa cousins with a Pep top. -- Joseph

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 68 seconds

been it leaves her cousins with a In our culture, you do not need be

invited to go to someone's house. You can walk in and you are allowed

to eat. I wish this community would be like that. It would be fantastic.

Getting to know the locals has helped Josie to see that poverty is

tough in a different way in Britain. She organises a party to try and

bring the community together. people who grew up during my time,

you are welcome to join in! # we should be together, together. We

should be walking side by side. We should be together, it together.

The been each other satisfied. -- keeping. The party is even attended

by the local councillor. Josephine EU are making a difference in my

area. Let us make some noise without Waka Waka that. Poverty can