Program faces difficult task raising funds
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Rankin Inlet (May 23/01) - The success of the Kivalliq's four Reclaiming our Sinew programs may prove to be their undoing.
When the Rankin Inlet program participants accepted their certificates earlier this month, it marked the completion of the programs in the Kivalliq this year.
Programs were also completed in Arviat, Repulse Bay and Coral Harbour.
The program consists of two components, traditions and literacy.
Nunavut Arctic College is seeking funding to cover the literacy component for six Kivalliq hamlets next year, but the traditional side of the program is starting to get thumbs down from funding administrators.
The Kivalliq Inuit Association (KIA) has sponsored the traditional aspect since it began two years ago.
KIA social development co-ordinator Bernadette Dean says that, while she's happy so many women have benefitted from the course, she realizes continued funding is going to be hard to find.
"Kivalliq Partners in Development have already indicated they will not be funding Reclaiming our Sinew any more because the program does not meet the criteria of the Aboriginal Training Fund, which it administers," says Dean.
"Many Inuit women in our region still need a stepping-stone program to provide immediate benefit to their self-esteem and encourage them to go further with their academic pursuits.
"If the government concentrates strictly on higher levels of academic learning with its funding, they're going to leave behind a lot of Inuit men and women who aren't qualified to set foot in a management studies or law program."
Dean says she still hopes the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth will find the funding to continue the program.
She says many women may be discouraged from taking next year's course if there's no student allowances made available to them.
"We keep hearing the traditional component of the program does not meet criteria for student allowances.
"Basically, my job is to find funding so we can hire elders to teach, but people are benefitting from this course and they shouldn't have to lose an income to go to school when they have little mouths to feed," she says.
"I know it's just going to get harder and harder to find the funding we need to properly continue this program."
