Inuit Outreach Project
South and North working together and learning together.
Reaching out to the people of Halton Hills and Beyond
OUR MISSION
To enable Inuit to live with dignity through:
• Outreach, providing essential items to offset the high cost of living.
• Social Justice through information sharing and relationship-building.
We would like to acknowledge that we meet on the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), Ojibway/Chippewa, Anishinabek First Nations.
The Spark
A few weeks before Christmas in 2010, Connie Karlsson from Norval, Ontario received a phone call that would change the way she and hundreds of others in surrounding communities knew and understood the lives of Inuit living in and connected to remote communities of Nunavik (northern Quebec) and Nunavut.
Karlsson had participated in in a holiday campaign suggested by a coworker a year earlier: why not collect and send things to Inukjuak, a community of about 1,600 souls located in Hudson Bay. This co-worker had been inspired by the story of Daghny Langer, the relative of a relative’s, who she knew had at one time lived in Montreal and fostered many Inuit children with ties to Inukjuak.
In fact, Dagny Langer had over the course 30 years fostered over 300 Inuk children, in particular, the children that were sick and had been medi-evacked from Inukjuak to Montreal. Dagny went on to adopt three of these children.
In the phone call, a message from Dagny simply said: “The little ones, are in desperate need of baby and children’s clothes and other essentials like baby formula, teething biscuits, baby diapers, baby wipes, baby powder, and hand soap,” she said.
Karlsson decided that in this second drive, she would ask the minister, Rev. Margaret Murray, at her small church to share the request at two other small churches that were part of Murray’s three point parish.
That clothing drive, which procured a 400 pound shipment packed into 30 boxes by a dozen volunteers has since grown into a twice annual shipment fetching more than 12 tons (300+ boxes) of items which are distributed to individuals living in 14 Northern Communities.
Collecting of Essential Items
Truck Loading Day - Spring Shipment - May 14, 2016
The Iqualuit load went separately, but on this truck...
- 143 boxes
- 1833 kg loaded aboard
- 24 volunteers on hand, smiling at a job well done!
And on another truck headed to Ottawa...
- 60 boxes
- 498 kg
Phew! That was a lot of packing in a 6 week campaign!
Previous Shipment to Montreal - December 5, 2015
- Saturday, December 5, 2015 at 8AM to load the Christmas Shipment of 3,542.53 LBs (142 boxes).
- Previous Shipment - Spring 2015 - 192 boxes
In a message from Mina Experon (one of our northern contacts) we learned...
The spring shipment of 26 boxes arrived to the communities of Umiujaq (Inuit reserved land) Sanikiluaq and Kuujjuarapi.
Nakurmiik to Mina Experon and her helpers for distributing the donations. Nakurmiik to Sharp Transportation, Pete Adema, Air Inuit, St. Paul's, St. Stephens, and St John's Anglican churches and the many volunteers in the community of Halton Hills and beyond for all that you do!
Pictured below are the drop off location for Iqualuit and Umiujaq. Both shipments from the April/ May packing party arrived just before the end of June.
Iqualuit Shipment - boxes have arrived!
Umiujaq - boxes unpacked and ready to distribute
At the other end of the donation - happy recipients!
Typical packing campaign means the work of Lots of Volunteers!
Our Mission is Sparking Something in Others...
Partners
Shipping and Flying
First Air*
Air Inuit
Sharp Transportation
What we collect:
Collecting & Donating - Beyond Our Cluster
St. George's Anglican - St. Catherine's
Aboriginal Youth Club Centre Wellington District High School
Bethel United Church, Acton
Soccer Equipment -
Food in the North
Living off the Land No More
Sure, they can ship food and other essentials from the south, but at what cost? Literally, how much do you think it costs for a few basic items?
Take a guess how much these items cost in Iqualuit?
- Peanut Butter
- Toilet Paper
- A Bag of Sugar
How we have helped...
Emulsifier Purchase & Donation
$1220.40 spent to purchase industrial restaurant size emulsifier to take to the Iqaluit Soup
Kitchen (see below for feedback), Connie attended the St Jude’s Cathedral, Iqaluit, worked in the Soup Kitchen and presented the emulsifier to the President of the Soup Kitchen Wade Thorhaug
Which resulted in this article in the Niagara Anglican
Pictures from Inclusion Cafe from Thanksgiving
And this e-mail...
Spreading the Message
- Georgetown Optimist Club Presentation - September 9, 2015
- Silver-wood Women’s Institute Presentation, met Tauni Sheldon, a local Inuk and a subsequent IFP article Kathy Kerr, St. John’s coordinated the invitation to present at their monthly meeting - October 14, 2015
- Article in the Niagara Diocese Newspaper - October 2015
- Received through Home Hardware 5 boxes of hand knit hats mitts and scarves from St. George’s Anglican Church, St. Catherine’s via our contact Effie Ida. 500 hats of which Effie’s sister Bernice knitted over 150 toques - November 2, 2015
- Aboriginal Youth Club donation, Fergus – one truck filled from the communities serving Central Wellington HS - November 7, 2015
- Article in the CWDHS web page - November 13, 2015
Social Media
Providing:
Regular social justice updates
Cluster Happenings
News Articles
Moving Forward
Executive/ Planning Committee
Roles Filled
- Co--Chairs - Deborah Keefe & Connie Karlsson
- Secretary - Bonnie Burton
- Treasurer - Mike Mansfield
- Media and Social Networking - Anne Rice & Connie Karlsson
Roles to be filled
Logistics Coordinator
Public Relations Officer
Cluster Communications Officers, one from each Church needed
Inuit Outreach Communications Officer
Build and maintain web link Caring and Serving as One web page to Inuit Outreach Project and to connect it to all Anglican and United churches
Social Justice through Learning - 3 Events Under Our Belts & more to come in 2016-2017!
Documentary Viewing & Facilitated Discussion
Learning with Tauni Sheldon
Special Guest Presenter - Johnny Issaluk, Athlete - April 2016
Resulted in front page coverage in The Independent
Here is a video featuring Johnny Issaluk
And following a presentation in Acton
From the Archives
We sometimes forget how much we have grown in a short time.