Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Fort Simpson (May 31/02) - A series of workshops are being held in Fort Simpson with the hope of bringing a better understanding of fetal alcohol syndrome.

Educators, parents and health-care workers are attending the week-long conference at the Fort Simpson Recreation Centre, which wraps up June 1.

"In the North, there's concern about multi-generational FAS, and the communities want to see it stopped," said Sandy Berg, project director for the FAS Support Network of B.C.

Berg, along with her colleague Donna Wheway, have been conducting FAS workshops all over the country for almost a decade.

What they have found have been a lot of misconceptions and cultural stereotyping when it comes to identifying exactly who might be susceptible to FAS.

"People in North America believe it was just a situation with First Nations and aboriginal communities," said Berg. "But what we know is that it crosses all cultures. There's not one culture in the world that doesn't present cases of FAS."

Berg estimates that two out of every 1,000 babies worldwide are born with it. There are approximately 350,000 people affected by FAS in Canada.

"With this workshop, we're hoping the community can better prepare to prevent FAS, and that it raises the awareness level of it," said Berg.

Although her organization is federally funded, Berg is well aware of the massive cutbacks taking place in B.C. to its health care programs by the provincial government.

She said she is very concerned what this might mean to parents and FAS children, and hopes the NWT doesn't follow the same path in the near future.

"We want these individuals to obtain the highest level of success they can," said Berg.

Delores Deneyoua, who works at the Stanley Isaiah Living Home, said she found the workshops very educational.

"I'm going to go back to my work and tell my supervisor what I've learned," said Deneyoua. "You need to understand FAS in order to relate to it."