Saskatchewan releases Indigenous Strategy on HIV/AIDS
- Jeanelle Mandes | December 05, 2014
The Saskatchewan Indigenous Strategy on HIV/AIDS was launched in Regina to kick off Aboriginal AIDS Awareness Day, World Aids Day and the first day of Aboriginal AIDS Awareness Week.
Margaret Poitras, CEO of All Nations Hope, says a few years ago a group of concerned Indigenous people gathered together to talk about an Indigenous strategy on HIV/AIDS in Saskatchewan.
“We had people that were concerned about the existing Saskatchewan HIV strategy that took place in the past four years through the Saskatchewan health,” says Poitras.
“There wasn’t a lot of Indigenous ways put into that strategy. Over the last four years, we had concerns with Indigenous peoples in this province who wanted to see more done for Indigenous people in Saskatchewan.”
Poitras says there were missing pieces in the last released strategy and she started seeing the numbers to rise over the past four years.
“We gathered and began talking the little funding we got from the federal government to give more formal work on developing the council and developing the strategy,” she says.
This past January, the council met in Prince Albert to talk about the strategy and putting all their thoughts and solutions together in terms of identifying the needs of Indigenous peoples here in Saskatchewan. Over the past summer, Poitras says there was a lot of work that was done on putting the strategy together for final review of the Saskatchewan Indigenous Council on HIV/AIDS to prepare for the release on World Aids Day.
All Nations Hope Network hosted an all day event at the Ramada Plaza hotel with their national partner, the Canadian Aboriginal Aids Network who had attended the event to release the strategy for Saskatchewan.
“On Sunday here in Regina, All Nations Hope did their annual pipe ceremony and feast. [The following day] we had a pipe ceremony; we honored those who had passed on from HIV/AIDS."
The event ended with a feast and a round dance to honor those living with AIDS and to remember those who had passed on from it.
“We were very happy with the turnout; we had many people that came. They recognized the need for the Indigenous strategy. We had many keynotes who spoke who gave out words of encouragement.”
Poitras says there are many events across Canada in support of Aboriginal AIDS Awareness Week.
Read the Saskatchewan Indigenous Strategy on HIV and AIDS here.
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