The Sheshatshit Innu Women's Group has now been in existence for a number of years. It has mainly operated on a volunteer basis from its membership as well as from time to time through private financial donations, in-kind services, sponsorships for travel to carry out public campaigns and attend conferences and very limited and irregular government grants for specific costs. Due to the lack of funding we cannot afford an office therefore we have been operating from our own homes whenever possible.

To try to achieve and maintain a concentrated effort in our objectives in this situation is next to impossible. But despite of the many obstacles we are challenged with we have successfully established our group. We believe as well that to a certain degree we have been able to add our voice to the major and very serious issues facing our children, people and ourselves. The problems we face in our lives are directly driven by activities on the land, environment and political issues. These in turn have direct social and economic repercussions on our people. The view our group shares is that this has led to the deprivation of our way of life, self-esteem and self-determination. Specifically these are the issues we have identified as our list of main objectives to work on.

To try to serve justice and bring forth a consistent and strong effort to these responsibilities is at most times very frustrating and discouraging given our limited resources and capacity. Through personal experience I have come to the hard realization that we are seriously handicapped and we need to be organized better with the necessary facility and equipment to meet our objectives. Now I have decided to commit as a priority my personal time in trying to identify different sources of funding to bridge this gap. I accept this as no small task and with the understanding that these more than likely will come from private and/or personal sources.

The funding we are able to raise would be spent to better equip our organization in dealing with the above issues. We would undertake firstly to renovate an existing building for use as our office. This structure is the one pictured above and owned currently by me. I am prepared to transfer ownership of it to the Sheshatshit Innu Women's Group once it is ready for occupation. As can be seen in this photograph it really requires a lot of work before it can be turned into an office. But through the generosity of our friends and supporters and hard work we all can make this become a reality. We can then proudly say that we made a dream come through.

I can only imagine writing another notice to all of you indicating our efforts have paid off. It would make me very happy to inform you that the office is now being occupied and include a photograph of a newly renovated building with that notice. It would provide us with the confidence and assurance that we then would have a central place to meet, work out of and effectively deal with our problems.

We sincerely ask for your consideration and generosity in this very worthwhile initiative of the Sheshatshit Innu Women's Group. We would also more than welcome any ideas you may want to share with us in terms of fund raising or suggestions of other issues we could work on. We are strong believers in the principle that working together can make a huge difference and if there is anything we can possibly help you out with we certainly will.

We are also going on a canoe trip this summer, starting on 30 August. It will be on Mista-shipu, from Churchill Falls to Gull Island. We are padding this river because people are once again talking about damming it for a hydro project. We are very concerned about this project, and invite anyone who is interested to join us.

Tshi miste naskumitnan (Thank you very much),
Elizabeth Penashue
Sheshatshit Innu Women's Group
P.O. Box 197
North West River
Labrador
AOP-1MO
Telephone # (709) 497-8741