Are you interested in taking part in the annual youth symposium?

The Nunatsiavut Government DHSD is calling for youth to be part of the planning committee for the annual youth symposium taking place in Hopedale.

One youth from Nain, Postville, Rigolet, Makkovik, Upper lake Melville, and two youth from Hopedale as they will be this year’s host.

They want the youth symposium to be for youth by youth.

It’s for any youth between the ages of 15-30 years of age.

If you are interested in taking part in the committee you can contact Cassie Jararuse at (709) 923-2365 ext. 235 or Heather Angnatok at 922-2114 ext. 241

TaKuaKautik is a volunteer based, community lead food bank that is starting here in Nain Nunatsiavut.

The TaKuaKautik will be holding their second online auction.

Brenda Jararuse is the Chair of the TaKuaKautik committee.

She says they are now collecting items for the online auction now until Monday Nov. 26, 2018.

Jararuse says please feel free to donate any items you may have new or like new items will be accepted, baked or cooked goods, household items, toys, clothing, pet items, books and movies, etc.

The online auction will start from Nov 30th to Dec 7th, 2018.

She says they have been working together now since January of this year.

To date they now have Board of Directors, a location and storage, thanks to Nunatsiavut Government DHSD, and a group of volunteers.

Jararuse also says they also have a Facebook webpage called “TaKuaKautik – Nain Food Bank” is mainly used to advertise any events going on and to keep the community updated with the TaKuaKautik.

She adds that they still have a lot of details to iron out, but they are very hopeful to have the food bank up and running very soon.

Thank you to our community for helping so much the last auction by donating and bidding on items.

The Community Enhancement Program in Hopedale gives an opportunity for individuals to obtain EI eligible hours.

Jolyn Pijogge is the Town Clerk for Hopedale Inuit Community Government.

She says the Enhancement Program started in Hopedale on October 22, 2018.

They currently have 2 workers, and are still accepting applications.

The deadline for applications is on March 8, 2019 and can be obtained online from Newfoundland and Labrador website, under Employment Support.

Pijogge says the activities this year in Hopedale are town clean-up, garbage box construction for residential purposes; repair of the floating dock, and to paint the main entrance of the HIGC office.

If you are interested in the program or have any questions, you can contact Jolyn Pijogge at the HIGC office at 933-3871, or you can email her at joly.higc.gmx.com.

A public meeting was held in Nain on Tuesday, November 13, 2018 to provide an overview of plans to increase awareness of Tuberculosis (TB).

Also to outline what steps are being taken to screen as many of the residents in Nain as possible.

DHSD in collaboration with LGH are encouraging the residents to get screened for TB, for who have not been tested or screened.

There have been 600 people screened and looking at another 400 yet to be tested.

And to date since March there have been 25 people treated with active TB.

Sylvia Doody is the Nunatsiavut Director of Health Services, and Dr. Gabe Woolam Vice-President of Medical Services with LGH.

To hear us speak with Doody and Woolam to discuss information about being screened for TB and how this can help the community to reduce the number of cases and prevent the spread of the disease, click HERE.

The Tradition and Transition will be holding an event to remember and commemorate the 100th year anniversary of the 1918 flu at OkKak.

There will be a supper and a screening of the movie, “The Last Days of OkKak” followed by discussions.

On the following dates, the events will be held today, Nov. 15 @ 6-8 pm in Nain @ the JS Center, and in Hopedale, the event will be held in the NG courtroom. And for Makkovik, their event is postponed due to a death in the community.

On Monday, Nov. 19 in Postville, they will be holding their event from 5-7 pm @ the Recreation Hall. In Rigolet, the event will be held @ the Community Hall from 6-8pm, and as for Goose Bay, their event will also be held @ the Friendship Center from 6-8pm.

If you have any questions, you can contact Brenda Jararuse at 922 2942.

One of our Nunatsiavut members from Nain went to Montreal for Food Security conference.

Shelley Dicker is the Food Community Coordinator of Nigivik Centre.

She says she went on a tour to another food centre downtown Montreal.

Dicker says most of their conferences were about how they grow their vegetables and how they keep their farms surviving in the cold winter.

To hear more from Dicker about the conferences that took place in Montreal, click HERE.

A collaboration with DHSD and LGH launched a campaign aimed at encouraging Nain residents who have not been screened to get screened for TB.

“By choosing to be screened you are playing a major role towards eliminating TB in the community,” says Nunatsiavut’s Director of Health Services, Sylvia Doody. “TB can be prevented but doing so takes a collaborative approach that involves the whole community.”

The Expanded community-wide screening initiative focuses primarily on residents who have not been screened following the death of a 14 year old youth in march 2018.

“It’s an unprecedented effort to contribute to the elimination of TB in the
Community and to help prevent future outbreaks” says Dr. Gabe Woollam, LGH’s Vice President of medical services. “As in the case in other Inuit regions in Canada, TB rates in Nain are far too high and steps must be taken to reduce the number of cases and prevent the spread of the disease. The enhanced community testing is an effort to do just that.”

A public meeting was held in Nain last evening to provide an overview of the plans to increase awareness of TB, and to outline what steps are being taken to screen as many residents as possible.

Additional human resources will be mobilized to the community as part of the expanded screening initiative, which will continue as long as necessary to minimize further threat of tuberculosis.

Kelly Fraser an Inuk song writer from Sanikiluaq, Nunavut held a live performance in Nain at the Jeremiah Sillitt Community Centre on November 10, 2018.

Our AngajukKak, Joe Dicker welcomed her to our community before she did her live performance.

She sings “Immammi” this song is about being in the water in her Kayak.

Then she sings Sipinguak written by her friend Cindy agulak.

Then she sings Immutaa and a song called Kauma which is about welcoming back the sun after it disappears in the high arctic.

She then performs another song called “for you” and she ends off singing the last song called Quviasuppunga.

To hear more of her live performance, click HERE.

The Labrador Creative Arts is celebrating their 43rd Annual Festival this year.

Matthew Barrett is the Manager of the Lawrence O’Brien Arts Center.

He says the music festival began yesterday evening Wednesday November 20th, 2018.

Each performance will be held at the Lawrence O’Brien Arts Center every evening starting at 7 pm.

The first performance was done by the Henry Gordon Academy School in Cartwright, and the second performance was by the St Peters School in Black Tickle.

Barrett says the Makkovik JC Erhardt will be doing their play titled “Them Days” this evening.

Then later a performance will be done by a group called Galitcha who are from Montreal.

Barrett says tomorrow evening the Postville BL Morrison School will be holding their performance followed by Kelly Fraser who will be performing.

Gas is down by over three cents a litre this morning.

The Public Utilities Board lowered the maximum price which retailers can charge by 3.2 cents.

All other fuels are down by about one cent with the exception of stove oil which drops by only half a cent.

Meanwhile, George Murphy of the Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices says he’s going to continue with his weekly projections.

A few weeks ago, he thought he would have to discontinue the practice because of costs; however he has found a source which provides base information required to form his weekly predictions.

He’ll see how it goes over the next few price settings.