Brent Reaney
Northern News Services

Chesterfield Inlet (July 04/05) - Leaning forward on her wheelchair, little Tamia cut the ribbon to mark the official opening of the Naja Isabelle Home with some help from Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq.

Dozens of the community's 350 residents watched the June 22 ceremony from the bottom of a flight of stairs, while others leaned on the roofs of their pick-up trucks.

"I'm coming down," Tamia said just after the ribbon fell onto the wooden steps.

The crowd laughed, but it would be nearly impossible for the home's 10 patients to get down a ramp on their own.

At the $3.8-million facility, 10 severely disabled residents - most of whom are unable to speak and are strapped into wheelchairs when moved around - receive unique care.

"It sometimes gets to the point where having a severely handicapped child is a 24-hours-a-day job," said director of care Dianne Raniowski.

With younger patients receiving different forms of mental and physical stimulation, she said it is possible some may one day walk out on their own.

Naja, which means sister in Inuktitut, refers to Sister Therese Isabelle, who spent more than 15 years working at the community's St. Theresa Hospital - originally operated by the Diocese of Hudson's Bay beginning in the 1940s.

Major employer

In a small community where the unemployment rate was up to 29 per cent in a 1999 Government of Nunavut labour force survey, the 28 land claims beneficiaries employed by the home since it began operations in January of 2005 is significant. Philippa Aggark has spent about five years working at both the old Theresa Hospital and now at Naja Isabelle.

"I come to work to help the needed ones, to take care of them and try to understand what they need," said the 45-year-old Aggark.