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Hi to all the Northern Ontario communties that read the K-Net News. My name is Fabian Campbell and I'm the coordinator of the new Early Years Centre in Poplar Hill.

Over the last couple of months I have been working on setting up a centre for children ages 0-6 to have a place to visit and participate in story-telling as well as crafts and other organized activities. The new centre is also intended for the parents to become involved as well, sharing and volunteering.

I secured the former Poplar Hill K.I.H.S building and set it up for the new Early Years Learning Centre. All the supplies were ordered from wintergreen learning supplies.

I have also been visiting with parents to provide information for them about what the program is going to be doing.The program is will be  networking with other programs and workers that are already in place in most communities, such as HBHC and Pre-Natal.

I have been working closely with all frontline workers as well as the Chief and Council to get this project off the ground. I attended a training program in Thunder Bay with Yellow Quill college to become the local trainer. This was a one week training program and there were other coordinators from other communties that are developing a similar project in their communities.

I have some pictures of the grand opening that I want to share with everyone.

The new KO Telehealth web site is showcasing the different efforts being made to complete the Telehealth expansion project into each of the Health Centres in the Sioux Lookout Health Zone First Nations. From May 17 to 19, KO staff travelled to Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug to meet with the Chief, Council, elders, community members and the local health centre staff.

Watch the Community Engagement site on the main menu of the web site for additional community visits and consultations. The photo gallery and news stories contains a number of pictures and stories documenting some of the work involved in rolling out this project.

For photos of the trip, visit Photogallery #1 and Photogallery #2

As well, the reports from this trip are available on-line. These include:

• Elder Stories (meetings with community elders to share and learn about their views concerning telehealth)
• Report to the Communities (staff report of activities, meetings and findings)

Sterling Hall School in Toronto, has donated thirty boxes of books to KO First Nations for use in their schools and community libraries. The books were recently received in KO's Thunder Bay office by Geordi Kakepetum.

Arrangements are now being made to distribute these books to the KO communities. For more information about these books, contact Brian Walmark at 877-737-5638 (KNET) ext 51260 or by e-mail at brianwalmark@knet.ca

NAN Deputy Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler is running a marathon to raise money and awareness about diabetes. He is working with K-Net to post information on his new website about his efforts to support the Nishnawbe Aski in their struggles with this disease. Click here to check out his new web site and leave an encouraging comment for Alvin.

Alvin is one of a four-person team from Thunder Bay participating in the "Fire and Ice" marathon run in Reyjavik, Iceland. He is the only Aboriginal person on this team. 

Alvin hopes that the web site will encourage people across the NAN territory to adopt changes that will promote healthy lifestyles that will lower diabetes rates among Aboriginal people. The NAN Deputy Grand Chief wants to get the message across to as many NAN members as possible about this cause.

Schools are encouraged to organize fund-raising campaigns to assist Deputy Grand Chief Fiddler’s run.

To see the photos taken by Melanie Goodchild of Alvin practising for his run, click here.

Eugene Roman, Group President of Bell Systems and Technology along with Rebecca Shipman (Associate Director), Nathalie Micucci (K-Net Sales Account, Ottawa), Steve Burton (Sales Manager, Ottawa) and Gary Martin (Engineer, Sudbury) with Bell hosted a meeting on May 18 at their downtown Toronto office with representatives from FedNor and K-Net. Carl Seibel, Telecom Officer with FedNor along with K-Net staff (Dan and Brian) joined the Bell Canada team to discuss our work over the past few years in developing telecom network in Northwestern Ontario. The meeting provided an opportunity to examine areas of common interest and further the Bell and K-Net partnership in developing telecom infrastructure and services in First Nations across Ontario.

A tour of Bell exCITE! Co-lab provided the team with an opportunity to observe and share strategic planning and engagement workshop strategies with each other.

Thomas Harper of Koocheching First Nation successfully made a call to K-Net Services from the Koocheching school on May 28. What was unique about this call was that it was completed using a computer and a two-way satellite internet service supplied by Industry Canada's First Nations SchoolNet program along with the Skype VOIP software. Of special significance is the fact that Koocheching First Nation remains one of the last Nishnawbe Aski Nation communities that has only a single radio phone serving the entire community.

Koocheching FN applied to the BRAND and FedNor programs for financial support to install a broadband connection to their community. BRAND rejected the portion of the Windigo First Nations Council's proposal that included Koocheching (even though they included them on their graphical presentation to the rest of the world). The Chief and Council are now working with FedNor in the hope that they will support their application to develop an adequate broadband connection to serve their community.

In the meantime, the Chief and Council are now investing in an interim local solution that will try to use the two-way satellite internet service at the school to deliver a connection for the families and all the buildings presently located in Koocheching. A local wireless solution is being purchased by the band that will hopefully be able to reach all the homes and deliver a connection to the rest of the world.

The VOIP software that can connect everyone to Koocheching and others is available free at http://www.skype.com ... you need a sound charge with speakers along with a microphone to be able to use this software and connect with others. A headset with a microphone will provide you with a little more privacy (these cost about $20). After loading the software, you are ready to make some calls using this on-line service. It is a good idea to write e-mail messages to everyone letting them know your username. The K-Net Helpdesk has three people connected to the Skype service ...

• John Moreau (Skype username = johnknet)
• Jamie Ray (jamie-knet)
• Jeannie Carpenter (jeannie)

The computer in the Koocheching school has Thomas Skype's username on it (tomharper). Give it a try ...

Recommended listening .... CBC's Business Network had a short 2 minute radio column entitled "How to avoid spam scams". (Requires Real Audio to hear this clip. Click here to get the free player.)

Recommended reading ... If you are having problems with your email you can go to K-Net Help and look up the K-Net Email FAQ

The K-Net e-mail service is now facing a crisis that requires everyone's help. We need EVERYONE to empty their mail boxes of all these different spam and virus messages. There are now over 500 e-mail accounts that are "over quota". This means each of these accounts have over 50M of storage space being used and are no longer able to be used to send or receive messages unless these messages are either deleted or downloaded to your own computer.

One hint to delete messages is contained in the K-Net Email FAQ web site. I am over my quota but I am not allowed to delete any messages.

• You need to turn off the use of your Trash bin.
• Login to your email.
• Go to "Options" then to "Folder Preferences"
• Change "Trash Folder:" so that it is "Do Not Use Trash"
• Click "Submit"
• Now you should be able to delete any message and clean up your mail box

Using SHOW ALL and TOGGLE ALL are two mail features that will help speed up the process of doing this housekeeping.

K-Net is now being forced to begin deleting e-mail accounts that are not being used. This means that if you do not use your e-mail account then it will be deleted to help free up storage space. Of course, if your e-mail account is deleted then this will also remove your myknet.org web site, if you have set up a personal homepage on myknet.org ... so, the two messages are ...

USE IT OR LOSE IT and CLEAN UP YOUR MAIL BOX!!

Thanks for your help in making K-Net the best place to be on-line!!

On Tuesday, May 18, Joe Lance, Executive Director at Kativik Regional  Government (KRG), Denis Beaudouin, Satellite Technical Consultant and KRG Advisor, along with Mike Collins, Account Manager and Elaine Robichaud, Associate Director of Government and Carrier Sales with Telesat Canada met in Toronto with Carl Seibel, Telecom Officer with FedNor and two K-Net staff. Topics discussed included:

• Background (history of partnership and developments)
• Research
• C-Band Public Benefit Transponder space
• Telesat and Ka bandwidth
• Access Agreement
• Transponder Space allocation
• Other Partners
• Infrastructure
• Transfer of clients and contracts
• Follow-up

Ga Wiianiniiganiitamagoyak Children's Centre in Deer Lake was selected to participate in a National Community Exchanges Program. This initiative was developed by Aboriginal Head Start On Reserve (AHSOR), to provide the opportunity for participants to exchange the following:

• Experience another Aboriginal Head Start project in a selected Aboriginal community in Canada;
• Learn from colleagues and aboriginal participants by visitng a site;
• New ways of delivering the program, cultural and language appreciation, expanding knowledge of the best practices in the six components inherent to the AHSOR Program criteria;
• Visit another part of Canada, experiencing new sights and learning the historical environment;
• Exchange ideas and discuss issues of mutual interest; identity and expand resource sharing; and explore trouble shooting approaches through brainstorming sessions;
• Profile your project and community with pride, by creating an awareness and appreciation of our differences and similarities.

The staff at GW Children's Centre will be travelling to Saskatoon, to meet with Saskatoon Tribal Council's Aboriginal Head Start site. The Children Centre will soon be looking for volunteers to sit on a committee to oversee the Community Exchanges Program. The Committee will be the hosting delegates, they will be showcasing the programs successes and the community of Deer Lake.

The Gathering Of Our People 2004 & Omuskego Creefest 2004

July 27 to July 31, 2004 Moose-Factory, Ontario

The Values and Living Spirits of Nookomonan and Nimooshominan Guide Us To Gather In Friendship, Unity and Goodwill; To Celebrate, Honour and Strengthen Our Cree Culture

The Activities include: Traditional Feast, Traditional Music, Dance & Drama, Step & Square Dancing, Gospel & Various Music

Alll Are Welcome To Attend

For Furthur Information Please Contact:

Moose Cree First Nation @ 705-658-4619 Or Mushkegowuk Council @ 705-658-4619