DIANE MAKAR MURPHY Group alleviates a dire plight within our borders

Pine Ridge is the second-largest Indian reservation in the country. It is also one of the poorest communities in the United States. Seventy-five percent of the people in Pine Ridge, located in South Dakota, are unemployed. The average per-capita income is just shy of $6,300.
Education and health care for the Oglala Sioux men and women living at Pine Ridge is poor. Infant mortality is high. Diabetes is rampant. Poor diets, alcoholism and domestic violence are too common.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Pine Ridge has the shortest life expectancy of any community outside Haiti in the Western Hemisphere. Pine Ridge men live to 45 on average. Women live, on average, to 47. In addition, the suicide rate in Pine Ridge exceeds any other in the country.
A week ago, I didn't know Pine Ridge existed, and you may not have before you read this. Though I had driven through a reservation in Colorado and had seen the treeless land and small, concrete block homes, broken windows, cluttered yards and broken-down jalopies, I had let the images fade from my mind as soon as they faded from my eyes.
It is more difficult to do now, after I visited Kathy Price, an Austintown resident and founder of the nonprofit organization Mission of Love. (Gail White wrote about the group's delivery of wheelchairs to Nepal in the spring.)
Group's mission
Mission of Love has as its purpose helping the indigenous people of the world, from Nepal to Honduras to Pine Ridge. "We're grass-roots, nonpolitical, nondenominational. What we give is ... without strings attached," Price said. She has overseen delivery of 8 million pounds of clothing, medicine, food and building supplies across the world via 70 donated airlifts to date. She often takes volunteers and gives hands-on help while making sure goods go where they're meant to.
At Pine Ridge, Price saw the people behind the statistics -- and more. Now, the homes in Pine Ridge are breeding grounds for black mold. Unscrupulous contractors failed to add ventilation ducts (placing vent grates on ductless walls to pass HUD inspection). Diarrhea, chest pains, flulike symptoms and compromised immune systems have been added to the list of Oglala misfortunes.
It seems far away. It seems far removed from us. But I'm not so sure it really is -- particularly at this time of year. Thanksgiving was created in good part to thank the American Indians who helped the Pilgrims survive. Might we not do a little something to help the Oglalas survive?
Obviously, we aren't going to build a new home for an Oglala family (though Mission of Love did). And we probably aren't going to boost employment or improve health care (though a letter to a congressman might be nice). But Price offers a straightforward solution any of us can do.
Offering help
"I would really like people here to befriend one family on the reservation," she said. "For example, they might give them a Wal-Mart card so they can buy food." Price said she would identify families in need, provide contact information, then basically get out of the way. Already, Warren Radiology and The Gatsby Restaurant's employees have plans to "befriend" families, she said.
Two arguments often come Price's way. One is that there are people closer by that need help. Why, opponents contend, should we send our assistance states, or even countries, away?
Price would no more stop you from helping your neighbor than she would stop herself from helping an earthquake victim in Nepal. Her view is global. People in need are people in need.
The second is that her strides are so small and the problems are so huge that she accomplishes too little. "The chain gets bigger, one by one," she said. "This is truly a mission of love and compassion. Two weeks ago, I gave an 86-year-old [Oglala] woman her first bed. She cried with joy."
To become a part of Price's mission of love, call (330) 793-2388.
murphy@vindy.com