My Tojan (niece) LaRay Brings Plenty is a certified paraprofessional at Takini high school and gave birth to her second baby three weeks early. She is not a “permanent” staff and is only an hourly waged employee without any paid leave, even though she has worked for the high school full-time for five years.
This fundraiser is a mutual aide effort to supplement her wages so that she can stay home with her newborn “Wanikeya” and enjoy her maternity leave. She went before the school board with support from her administration, but was denied paid maternity leave. However she is granted maternity leave for six weeks WITHOUT pay.
She has raised her daughter as a single parent and right now my mother, who is 73yrs old is her babysitter for the time being. Takini school is extremely remote on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal reservation. This is not our reservation and she is limited as this reservation is three hours from family.
We had a community showing of the film “Lakota vs. the United States” in Eagle Butte on the Cheyenne River reservation. I haven’t been to that reservation since the KXL pipeline & man camp fight.
I was able to stop in to visit my Tojan (niece) at her house & have dinner with her. I got to meet my new born Takoja. I was kuja (sick) when he was born and couldn’t see him in person
My heart broke, because my niece is so awesome at her job. She chooses to stay at her job because she chooses to work with the kids that struggle the most socially and behaviorally in the classroom. She is known for her continued accomplishments with her students.
She has been dedicated to the students since BEFORE and during the pandemic. She is a frontline worker who showed up in-person and walked door-to-door, hand delivering and picking up weekly work packets. Many homes on the reservation don’t have WiFi and many communities don’t even have cell reception.
She caught Covid on a couple occasions, even while she was pregnant with her newborn son. My Tojan (niece) is such a hard worker and amazing Ina (mom). Her long term goal is to become a speech therapist. She has witnessed the impacts of reservation life and poverty on students, along with the dire need for speech therapists in a tribal school setting.
She only took her first week off post-partum after her pregnancy and went back to work. She is breastfeeding and truly deserves to rest and enjoy her maternity leave.
She has been working the past two weeks, but still can take the remainder of her maternity leave…but us single parent mamas know that is never an option for us to take leave WITHOUT pay. All the bills on our shoulders and a home to provide for is priority.
With all the funds and mutual aid support going out to organizations and reproductive rights movements, we have somehow forgotten about the postpartum aspect of it all. There are still limitations on the quality of reproductive rights and HEALING JUSTICE!
Please share❣️
All donations greatly appreciated!!!
CashApp: $LaRay59
Venmo @LaRayxoxo
Wopila Tanka,
Candi Brings Plenty
