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Attawapiskat's Cry for Help
By: Teague Schneiter
Posted: Nov 10 09
Witnessed: 5149 times
Regions: Canada
Issues: Education, Environment, Food & health & development, Housing, Indigenous peoples, Poverty, Sanitation, Shelter, Water
This video was originally uploaded by youtube user: Neebageesis on October 26, 2009 with this associated text: "The people of Attawapiskat will be heard.. Enough is enough, it's time to take responsibility and support this community"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The remote Attawapiskat community in Northern Ontario has been suffering for years due to inhospitable conditions, such as sewage floods, and the government has not responded with help.
There is only 1 DAY LEFT! to help the Attawapiskat community attain building materials to rebuild their housing. To help, VOTE HERE up to once a day.
They are at the 800+ mark now, and have five days left to get up to 2500 votes.
Please also write to Minister Chuck Strahl and urge him to respond to the Attawapiskat state of emergency:
Chuck StrahlHill
OfficeHouse of CommonsOttawa, OntarioK1A 0A6Email: StrahC@parl.gc.caPreferred Language: English
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Janie Kataquapit's statement from the AVIVA website:
"The community of Attawapiskat is living in an impoverished conditions, with many homeless. These people are living in tent frames because their homes were destroyed by sewage, at first leaving 90 people homeless. Attawapiskat is a Cree Community that sits on the shores of James Bay, in an isolated rural area of northern Ontario. The only access to the settlement is by plane in the summer and in the winter by ice road. As winter approaches the seriousness of not having a real home is beginning to dawn on the people living in tents. There are elders and families with members who have disabilities, and poor health living in tents. Others are living in an old healing lodge abandoned many years ago because of substance abuse. Children as young as a 1 year old are impacted in this situation. We need your help to combat these conditions. The winter can be very harsh in this region reaching temperatures of -50 degrees celsius and the tents won't be able to keep these people warm.
There are others living with 30 people in one house, a one floor dwelling with 3 bedrooms. We have a family of 15 who lost their home living at a Catholic parish hall til housing can be accomodated. As of now, social services reports over 1,000 people over the age of 18 are consider homeless over. This has created a lot of problems for the families. The community has a population of close to 2,000 individuals. Tragedy has devastated this community over and over again, such as contaminated drinking water, and high rates of youth suicides. While Christmas for most Canadians, in Attawapiskat many have lost hope and have resigned to living in these impoverished conditions. This is a community that deserves something positive, having faced one obstacle after another, for the sake of their children. We can make this a reality and at least help some families by voting for this idea. If one has a heart to reach out, please support our cause. This is about having a basic human right. The right to shelter which is intensely important in this one of the harshest environments in Canada. This community still follows there traditional way of life, living off the land as hunters and gathers but times have changed and these changes have been hard on this community. The community is growing rapidly but the houses allocated are not enough to keep up with the growing population. There is great stress among the people living under one roof. Think of your vote as a christmas gift that you can give to everyone of these people, that will help them by relieving them of these conditions. They are warm people who will open their door for you, feed you as their traditional values teach them to.
Our goal is to buy building materials or possibly trailers to have more buildings to house these people. The materials would include low cost lumber, windows/doors, insulation, roof tiles, panels, floor tiles, kitchen cabinets, bathroom fixtures, chimney, electrical things, nails, etc. So please support this cause as it is a geniune outreach to help this community.
Thank you so much and may the Creator continue to bless you as the Christmas holiday approaches. I will be attaching pictures and video to see for yourselves the conditions endured by these families who live in Attawapiskat, Ontario, Canada.
Have compassion and help them as they are in need. I ask in kindness for our children, parents and our elders!"
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Comments
9 days left,don't forget to vote 1 time a day!
By Mimi on Nov 20 09
Just a reminder..keep up the support for the homeless of Attawapiskat!
We still need more supporters if not we wont make it!Invite your friends to join our fight,you can help make a difference by giving your vote 1 time a day!
Here is the link to vote:
http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf2897
Alone we can do so little,together we can do so much!
This is very encouraging!!
By Mimi on Nov 16 09
YES!!!Attawapiskat made it through the second round,thanks to YOU!!I'm so excited ,I had to share it with you!It's wonderful to see that when it really matters, we are capable of standing together as one.
Now it's everything or nothing!!Round 3 means casting 1 vote everyday for 2 weeks and we can invite more friends to do the same!!Attawapiskat is currently in the top 10 of most votes,let's push it to nr 1!!!:D
Think of your vote as a Christmas gift that you can give to everyone of these people, that will help them by relieving them of these conditions..
http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf2897
...this should be an issue for INAC to solve,but don't count on them:
http://intercontinentalcry.org/indian-and-northern-affairs-canada-is-no-...
Enough is enough..Start opening your eyes Mr. Strahl..How can you sleep at night, know ppl are sick and have no proper living quarters..No proper air to breath and no good water to drink..People living in tents and the cold weather is about to come.
7 hours left and counting down!!Comments also count!
By Mimi on Nov 15 09
2 ideas will get into the semi's by being the most discussed... Attawapiskat has a great chance to get to the next round (at the moment is second in "most discussed!!) please keep up the commenting!:)) http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf2897 Thank you so much for your support!
3 days left!Thank you to everyone who continue to vote!
By Mimi on Nov 12 09
TRAGEDY UNFOLDING ON JAMES BAY COAST: Government Abandons Families in Unheated Tents
Audio files
http://www.charlieangus.net/newsitem.php?id=501&PHPSESSID=957eaf696d9869...
Deputy Chief Spence said:
"“I can’t understand how the government has continued to ignore crisis after crisis that has cropped up in our community, especially this one,30 other community members who had also fled their sewage-contaminated homes have already returned to the community and have had to move into tent frames or the local treatment facility because of lack of appropriate housing. “With winter fast approaching we are becoming increasingly concerned.
Rather than building proper, safe housing for the evacuees, the basements of the sewage-contaminated homes are being remediated by the federal government without proper consideration for potential health and safety concerns.
To do this to a group of people who are already having to live in Third-World conditions is an absolute disgrace and an insult,the government also continues to ignore the medical plight of the community members who are living in the immediate vicinity of a fuel-contaminated school.How long will they continue to ignore us like this?”
View submitted photos from the Attawapiskat community here:
http://www.wawataynews.ca/image/tid/207
Attawapiskat - where are the promises?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXY8UlI_CAw
Your vote and comments can make a difference,thank you all for your support and thank you Teague for setting up this page!!
Many blessings to you all!