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DEH GAH GOT'IE KOE/FORT PROVIDENCE - Christmas will be brighter for one family in the Deh Cho since they've received some financial support.

Bertha and Edward Landry of Fort Providence will be receiving funding through the Dehcho First Nations' Aboriginal Human Resources Development Agreement (AHRDA). The money will help the family while Edward completes school.

"It's such a relief," said Bertha. "It was my number one stress."

In the Nov. 6 edition, Bertha told the Deh Cho Drum her family, including four children, was at risk of losing their home while her husband completes his education. Edward is in his final year of a two-year Natural Resource Technology diploma offered at the Aurora College campus in Fort Smith.

The couple pays approximately $500 a month for Edward's residence in Fort Smith and an additional $1,900 in rent for their house in Fort Providence where Bertha works at the Zhahti Koe Friendship Centre. Bertha said they'd only been able to pay a portion of the Fort Smith rent this semester.

"We fought really hard to get the house we are living in now and if things don't turn around, if we don't get assistance I might have to move back to Fort Smith," said Landry.

At the time the couple had applied for assistance from the Deh Gah Got'ie Koe First Nation's Local Training Authority. Bertha said she was told the family made too much money to receive funding.

What happened in the Landry's case wasn't quite that black and white, according to Gloria Buboire, the AHRDA co-ordinator with the Dehcho First Nations (DFN).

DFN receives an annual budget of $1.4 million from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada to administer human resource development programs and services for the Deh Cho region. Some 57 per cent of those funds are divided between 11 aboriginal community organizations, that in turn deliver the programs said Buboire.

The program provides funding to help aboriginal people further their education and training. To receive funding clients must first apply with their local training authority using a standard set of documents. The forms include a grant application, a letter of acceptance from an educational program and documentation of all other sources of funding or income.

"There's lots of stuff we have to look at to assess clients," she said.

The income versus the expenditures of clients is compared to determine what funding they are eligible for, said Buboire.

"We do have guidelines we go by," she said.

The local training authority in Fort Providence couldn't make an assessment on the Landry's case because they didn't submit all of the necessary documentation, said Buboire.

The application was passed on to the regional office in Fort Simpson where the last of the documentation was received and a decision for funding was made.

Having an application denied is unusual.

"I don't think we've ever turned down a student yet," said Samantha Kovacs, the AHRDA clerk, referring to regional office's record in the last year.

Most clients are funded at the local level, said Kovacs, unless the authority has already given out all of their money.

Last year the program had 1,085 clients in the region. The students are in a variety of programs including nursing, business administration, management studies and one who's on their way to law school, said Buboire.

The funding allows people, who might not otherwise be able to, achieve their education goals, she said.