Dear Wise Ones,

I feel once  again I am going against the grain. I see clients for fees, I
do Pro Bono work (which is NOT the same as volunteer work, it is defined as
a professional, doing a professional job, "For Good", meaning, for the good
of the client who cannot pay for services) and I lead a LLL group, and I am
a LLL AAPL.

I do not expect anyone else to do Pro Bono work if they do not want too.
But I choose to. None of it has to do with guilt, or because I started as a
LLL leader, (Actually I "started" as a Med School hopeful, planning on
working part time at a free clinic) or with any lack of character or lack
of "professionalism."

I see Pro Bono clients because there are POOR people where I live. They
cannot afford the fees I charge my paying clients, and many times the
situations they find themselves in are out of the range of a LLL leader.
These women need no less help, and in light of their financial, health and
nutritional state, many times need more help than my clients from rich
cities like Elmhurst or Naperville require. They NEED someone ro hwlp them
with Breastfeeding, or they will simply switch to ABM, as that will be
their only option. WHO will help them if I don't?

We cannot eliminate the underprivleged simply by pretending they do not
exist, or by deluding ourselves that "if they wanted my help badly enough
they would 'get' the money." I will not have a low income mother miss her
rent payment or have her older child go without winter boots, or eat plain
rice with margerine for dinner *again* just so she can pay me. I couldn't
spend that money on myself or my family and sleep at night.

The poor exist, they probably exist in or near all communities. Ignoring
their plight is very very easy to do. I cannot condemn anyone of my fellow
LCs for only concentrating on those who are able to pay. It is, and most
likely must remain, just a business to them, and I can respct that. After
all the guy who fixed my car doesn't care if someone may need their car and
can't pay him, they people at Jewel don't care if someone needs food and
can't pay for it, and has been cut off of food stamps, the person who
collects the gas bill doesn't care if someone is cold, and can't pay their
gas bill. It's a business, and that is how Western Civilization works. Most
of the time. No more than this is expected from anyone, no matter what your
chosen profession is.

I, however, on occasion, work outside the way modern, dollar driven,
Western Civilization operates. My teenage daughters see me work with paying
clients, they also see the poor and the destitute and that their babies are
no LESS worthy of their mother's milk than the rich woman's baby from
Naperville I saw the day before. I am giving my daughters a FULL sense of
self worth knowing that when one helps those who do not have financial
power, you are doing more than just cashing a check so you can buy things
for your own house or your body. You are investing in your soul, and the
souls of those who otherwise would be alone and abandoned.

I certainly don't expect anyone else to practice the way I do. But the
women I see Pro Bono are grateful, their babies have the benefit of mama's
breasts and milk and I know I am earning something **more** than a
paycheck. I am NOT unprofessional, any more than doctors who see patients
who have no insurance for free are, or lawyers who defend people Pro Bono
are, or professional chefs who create "Beggar's Banquets" in poor
neighborhoods for the indigent do. Their peers do NOT call them
unprofessional. I don't disrepect those who work solely for cash rewards,
and I simply expect the same respect from those who might otherwise class
me as "unprofessional."  I don't expect you to join me, only to respect me.
Or at least refrain from insulting me. I feel this had to be said, because
I KNOW I am not the only one who does this.

Please try to think of the poor at times other than when you are digging on
your pockey outside Target or Field's to put a dime in that red winter
holiday bucket, becuse the poor don't only exist at Christmas.

God Bless all of your work and the mothers and babies you help.

Thank you,
Mary Jozwiak IBCLC, RLC, LLLL, AAPL

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