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Chase away the black shadow

Have you heard about the youth suicide rate in aboriginal communities in northern Ontario? And do you find this rather hopeless?
Enter Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor James K. Bartleman.
Recently, I heard him speak. I expected a speech about as exciting as unbuttered toast. Instead I listened to a man who has decided to make a difference.
He has native Canadian background, there is mental illness in his family and 10 years ago, he succumbed to depression.
But with treatment, he’s come back and he’s made the following three areas his priorities:
- racism
- the fight against the stigma of mental illness
- aboriginal youth
About 30,000 native Canadians in northern Ontario live a life of welfare and considerable despair, caught between the old hunter/gatherer society and the modern world.
Most children are five years behind in school. Adolescents attend classes with hooded faces and don’t speak. A shocking number of them kill themselves.
Mr. Bartleman noticed there were no libraries in many of their schools, no books.
He embarked on a program to get books donated and 850,000 poured in. Within three years, reading levels have improved 30%.
He next established summer literacy camps in partnership with many organizations including the Southern Ontario Library Association and Frontier College.
Where there were summer literacy camps, there were no suicides. H-m-m-m-m.
He appealed to United Ways across Ontario to keep this ball rolling, to be part of establishing literacy camps all across the north.
He suggested local United Ways sponsor 5 children at $100 per child over the next 5 years.
So let’s do this in Elgin.
Through United Way’s donor choice program, we can help aboriginal kids chased by the black shadow of suicide.
The local United Way phone # is 631-3171, the address is 300 South Edgeware Road St. Thomas N5P 4L1, email info@stthomas.unitedway.ca
Tell ‘em you’re pledging support or sending a cheque for the “Native Project”. They’ll know what to do.