SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Two students from Jenny Reid's Grade 8 class were selected to represent Weledeh Catholic School at a national summit on child poverty, based on very personal essays written on the subject.

Grade 8 student at Weledeh Catholic School Madison Mantla, left, teacher Jenny Reid, and fellow student Meadow Munroe recently returned from the Keep the Promise Summit and Town Hall in Ottawa. - Elaine Anselmi/NNSL photo

"I wrote what kinds of poverty there are and how it had an impact on my life," Meadow Munroe told Yellowknifer, upon returning from the summit in Ottawa.

"There are two different kinds of poverty: absolute and relative. Absolute is when you don't have a job, money to pay for anything or a house. Relative, is when you have a house and job but you can barely pay for it. I was in relative poverty with my dad; he was single and we just didn't have enough money to pay for anything and it was very hard on him, and then we got out of it."

For her essay, Madison Mantla shared observations of poverty in Yellowknife and spoke to different people about their understanding of the issue - from a young child who described it as living on the streets with no money, to an adult who recognized that people can live in poverty while still carrying out a seemingly normal life.

From Nov. 18 to 19, Munro, Mantla and Reid attended the Keep the Promise Summit and Town Hall, along with more than 50 teachers and students in grades five to eight.

"It was an event focusing on poverty, specifically in Canada, talking about the broken promise made 25 years ago," said Mantla.

That promise, a motion brought forward by then-NDP Leader Ed Broadbent and unanimously passed by the House of Commons in 1989, was to end child poverty by the year 2000. That didn't happen.

Now, various organizations including he Canadian Teachers' Federation (CTF) is bringing attention back to that unfulfilled agreement. Through its Imagine Canada organization, CTF has established the "Keep the Promise" campaign and summit on the prevalence of child poverty that persists today.

"I just think poverty is a real issue that needs to be dealt with," said Munroe. "Whenever I go out in town, my heart breaks when I see people on the streets."

The campaign was brought to Reid's attention at the CTF conference in September, and her class has since been working on a social justice project addressing poverty. The project was submitted to Imagine Canada, and Reid's class was selected to take part in the summit from Nov. 18 to 19.

At the summit, Mantla said they spoke with people about how poverty exists in different communities, and about basic needs such as food and housing, and what their priorities are.

"There was one town in Newfoundland that had no food bank or shelter and the nearest ones were 20 kilometres away," said Madison. "The same town didn't have any sort of public transportation."

One of the focuses of the summit is bringing about discussion on what individuals can do to end poverty, which affects more than one million children in Canada, said Reid.

At Weledeh, Reid said they would work with the "Think Pink" organization, which focuses on bullying, to overcome the stigma around poverty. And, on Tuesday, the three will make a presentation to the GNWT Department of Health and Social Services' Anti-Poverty Roundtable.

In the coming months, Mantla said the class is hoping to do some volunteer work for shelters and food banks in town.

While the summit is over, Reid said the class would continue to seek a deeper understanding of poverty in their community.

"I think it just makes everything real-world applicable. We can talk about helping others all we want in class, but unless we have some hands-on experience, it's really hard to make the connections," said Reid. "You need something tangible to do to really see it, live it and understand the issue."

Both Munroe and Mantla said attending the summit increased their interest in finding a solution to child poverty.

"Until it ends," Munroe said. "I'm not going to be able to stop thinking about it."

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