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The Keewaywin First Nation clinic will be closed for the duration of the week due to the fact that there is no running water. The clinic will be closed by the order of Health Canada. The community has been having difficulties with their water. The treatment plant needs to be replace due to the fact that there is hard water and most of the community residents have been complaining of stomache aches. The clinic has their sewage backed up and there is no pressure in the taps. Only a trickle of water is available for most houses. We must rely on buying bottled water from the community store for our drinking water. Due to the hard water, when we tried to boil tea or make coffe, some thing from the hard water floats to the surface, lime deposits are ruining all coffee makers all over the community. I personally have bought two coffee makers due to the fact of hard water. Someone will be coming from Balmertown to check up on the water situation today. They will be conducting tests and will try to remedy the situation.

About a week ago Allan Kakepetum's cable connection stopped working shortly after the cable modem was installed. I went there numerous times to figure out what was going on. All we knew was that the connection wasn't getting through to the house. On Friday we (Raymond, our community volunteer Joseph Meekis and myself) went out to the house to see if we could get it going again. First Raymond went up to the cable box on the telephone pole and connected a cable line to the adapter. Then we connected the other end directly to the cable modem which was plugged into the house with a long extension cord running outside. The cable modem wasn't recieving any data. Raymond then called Blair Electronics and told them about the problem. Blair suggested that we connect to another adapter on a nearby telephone pole. We found the nearest adapter about twenty feet away. I connected a cable to this adapter and ran the cable over to the connector at the house. When we got inside, to our delight (smiles all around ) the connection was once again established. It was a great feeling to have the connection going again because we had a hard time with it. I actually got a fever while doing this job but on Friday I was feeling better. The pictures were taken of the three of us, Raymond, Joseph and myself, by David McKay. I asked David who was busy at work if he had time to get these pictures posted and he was very much pleased to do so. This is what good team work can aspire to, big smiles and shiney faces all around. See the pictures

From the 10th to the 15th of March, there is the Little NHL league happening in Thunder Bay, Ontario. This tournament is for all young native american hockey players. They will be coming from reserves all across Ontario, Toronto area to Kenora. This is the place to meet a lot of new friends? Inviting everyone ... from your friends and clans who will be there and are looking forward to meeting you.

Dr Edye, a psychiatrist from Winnipeg MB arrived in Keewaywin Monday morning on March 4th. She is working with the Northern Chiefs in the telehealth project which is a new program to improve health services to the northern communities. She will be working out of Winnipeg and will personally meet with the individuals before she actually starts seeing patients via teleconferencing. She has worked with the Nodin Counselling Services visiting other remote communities and as a consultant for Northern Chiefs. She was also involved with the Northern Chiefs in a pilot Mental Health project with Poplar Hill and North Spirit Lake. People from these two communities were able to access professional services through the use of video conferencing. Community people did not have to leave their communities to get some professional counselling. This technology that has come into the communities enabling the people to stay in their communities avoiding all the stress involved in taking a trip out of town. This project will commence sometime in April for Keewaywin. The Mental Health Worker will keep the community updated via the local E-center and the K-Net news. Check out the photos

Last week the Koocheching community had their winter road open. They are now connected to Keewaywin and are able to drive the winter road by vehicle. It's a little easier for Koocheching people to bring in their supplies. Shopping will be easier for them. Coming to Keewaywin for their doctors appointments will also be cheaper and more convenient than having a charter flying back and forth. It also makes the connection easier for the communities and families to visit each other.

Anthony Bekintis, a twenty year old man is running for Band Council in 2002 March elections. He was nominated on March 04th, 2002. His vision. To promote young people to get involved with the Band Council. To produce a junior postion within the Sandy Lake Band Council that will always be open to the youth/ young people. Their will be five catagories always in place; chief, deputy chief, councillors, elders council and a junior councillor (youth intern). So that the young people will always have a position within the Sandy Lake Band Council. We, the young people are the future of our community and therefore should always have a say in what goes on in our community. Experiences/Background he has worked in a number of workplaces since the age of 15. Some of his previous occupation include being a councillor in training(C.I.T) at the YMCA in Sault.Ste.Marie, ontario. An operator for the ministry of transportation working on the winter road project for the Sandy Lake Community Development Services and also a supervisor for the Adowgamick Enterprises where he learned about business and computer skills. He entered and completed a leadership course at the Bark Lake Leadership Center in Toronto. He was forced to leave high school to support his growing family, but understands and is also upgrading through independant learning courses. If you would like to contact Anthony, please email him at anthonybekintis@Knet.ca

Deer Lake, Fort Severn, North Spirit Lake, Keewaywin and Poplar Hill now have telehealth workstations completely installed and operating at their clinic or nursing station! Community telehealth coordinators have been hired and trained to operate the workstations and will use cameras, telephones, and the workstations to improve community access to health care. The workstations will enable each community to communicate with doctors and other health professionals at distant locations such as the Sioux Lookout Zone Hospital, Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre and Thunder Bay hospitals. Telehealth services will also include family videoconferencing with relatives in hospitals, telepsychiatry, patient education programs, and continuing education for local health workers and health professionals. Telehealth is the first of its kind for the KO region and is a welcomed addition to other services made available under the Smart Communities Demonstration Project which is connecting northern communities to help improve personal and community well-being through the use of ICTs. For pictures of the equipment being used in: * Poplar Hill visit http://photos.knet.ca/telehealth-poplar; * Keewaywin visit http://photos.knet.ca/telehealth-keewaywin; * North Spirit Lake visit http://photos.knet.ca/telehealth-north-spirit; * Deer Lake visit http://photos.knet.ca/telehealth-deer-lake.

Release A Suicide Prevention Workshop was held in Poplar Hill this week. Micheal MORRISON (Nishnawabe-Aski Nation, Marlie SQUIRELS (Nishnawbe-Aski Police) and Dan MCLEOD (Northwest Patrol Unit,Ontario Provential Police) presented the 3 day workshop at the community's "E Centre". The workshop focused on helping the community to reconize signals of suicide and ways to prevent and to deal with suicidal persons. The main focus of the workshop was to inform participants that SUICIDE IS NOT ABOUT DYING, IT'S ABOUT STOPPING THE PAIN. The participants learned some of the SIGNALS OF SUICIDE, three of which are: i) giving away prized possessions (i.e such as a CD collection) ii) saying good bye in an important manner (i.e a letter saying they're going away) iii) correcting past mistakes (i.e making apoloyies, paying old debts) They also learned THE THREE STEPS TO PREVENTING SUICIDE which are: i) Ask directly if he or she is thinking about suicide. ii) Listen, don't judge. And don't say things will get better. iii) Get them HELP. NAN has the lead role in the cooperative effort netween themselves and other agencies that includes Nodin, Tikanigan Child and Family Services,OPP, RCMP, Mattawa and Delico. NAN is presently scheduling training sessions for Nothern Communities. If First Nations are interested in having a workshop in thier community the should contact Micheal Morrison, NAN at (807) 623-8228.

Keewaywin is getting their cable system hooked up to the hydro poles this week. The work began last week (Feb 1) and the crew from Blair Electronics are still hooking up the cable lines. It is amazing to watch how they attach the cable lines and use the telephone cable to piggy back on. I have been following them around and am being trained to hook up the houses and get internet access into the homes. I have been taking pictures to show you how they are doing this. We have our Computer Technician follow them around and another Band employee to see how they are hooking up the cable lines. Each of us are taking part in the training so there is always someone available to hook up the next new building to this broadband service. See the pictures of the cable system installation in Keewaywin

On Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2002, the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra (T.B.S.O.) came to Pelican Falls First Nations High School to perform for the students. The Niiwi Pines drum group from Lac Seul were there as well to welcome their guests to their traditional territory. The show was great. Everyone was awed by the performance. After the show was finished a luncheon was served in the main side of the school. Watch for the story in the coming weeks of Wawatay News. Hopefully the pictures work out so they can be published.