Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 12/99) - Maria Hansen and Ann Kasook say they plan to use the upcoming White Ribbon Campaign Week to further bolster awareness of the lingering problem of violence against women and children.

The pair have a vested interest in the campaign. Hansen serves as president and Kasook as executive director of the Inuvik Transition House, an eight-bed shelter for victims of family violence that serves the whole region.

"The campaign is intended just to make the whole issue more widely known -- that there is abuse out there and that we have to put a stop to it," said Kasook last week. "We also want victims to know they have a place to come to where they can find support and counselling."

The campaign runs nationwide, Nov. 25-Dec. 6, and Hansen recently appeared before town council and successfully secured a motion providing some financial support for the project. Hansen said that otherwise, Transition House relies on a government contract to operate, organizes its own fund-raising and accepts donations from "good guys" like the RCMP and businesses around town.

Hansen said funding goes toward not only sheltering women, and occasionally children, but in helping them achieve a fresh start.

"We have a program co-ordinator and are looking to starting up something like a women's sharing circle," she said. "We're also able to provide things like crafts for the ladies, we're trying to build up their self-esteem, that's it."

Kasook said she's always had an interest in women's issues and said that even before taking over as Transition House director in July, she was on the board and also active in Friends Against Family Violence. She said that as a long-time Inuvik resident, she's always had women come to her to share their experiences and for help. She said she enjoys her work at Transition House, knowing she's helping to provide support to an even greater number of women.

Hansen said, however, Transition House experiences some mixed results, and that she is aware of its limitations.

"I know there are some successful cases coming out of the home and some who will just go back to the source of their problems," she said. "Some even come back to us a second time, and when they do we offer them even stronger encouragement and urge them to choose a healthier lifestyle for themselves and their children."

She said it's difficult to say whether domestic violence in the North is on the rise or declining.

"It varies," she said, "and there's still a need for a shelter in every community -- and support is still a much-needed commodity in the NWT."

Hansen said that with the holidays approaching, typically a time when levels of violence rise, that need would likely soon be greater than ever. Kasook stressed that organized actions like the White Ribbon Campaign would help stop that cycle.

"The silence has to be broken," she said.