New data from Statistics Canada shows one in six Indigenous people are living in overcrowded housing — almost double the national average in Canada.
Pukatagawagan First Nation in northern Manitoba is one community facing extreme overcrowding, with children often forced to share a bed or sleep on the floor. When a couple of Winnipeg service organizations caught wind of that, they decided to help.
Manitoba Knight of Columbus teamed up with Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a non-profit that builds and delivers twin-size beds and bunks for children sleeping on floors, couches or sharing beds, to take 22 beds on an 800-kilometre journey to Pukatawagan last week.
Since they were going anyway, they added a few hundred winter coats and seven wheelchairs to the cargo.
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“You get great satisfaction from doing that sort of project,” says Mark Desjardins, with Knights of Columbus.
“Everything is about seeing the reaction to your actions and you can’t put money on that.”
Barbara Dumas, the community’s health director, says she appreciates volunteers making the trek to help those in need in the area.
“I’m very thankful and I’m very happy that they were able to come all the way to Pukatawagan,” says Dumas. “Nobody ever ventures this far to bring that support into our community.”
The recent initiative could be the beginning of a partnership between the service organizations.
“Hopefully we’ll move on from here and meet the needs of other communities in the future,” says Sleep in Heavenly Peace’s Jim Thiessen.
WOW! With all the money AFN has, they still get “given”!! Whites should be so fortunate. I had to work as a single Mom to pay for my kids beds, etc. Wow!