Arctic charity resilient in challenging times
Juno Award winner Susan Aglukark, left, founder of the Arctic Rose Foundation, at a workshop in Ariat, Nunavut, that trains two Indigenous youth to serve as Community Artist Liason and Mentor (CALM) workers. Photo courtesy Arctic Rose Foundation
Arctic charity resilient in challenging times By
Bernadette Timson, Youth Speak Newa
December 22, 2020
Like most charities across Canada, the Arctic Rose Foundation finds itself operating in a landscape that is, and will remain, uncertain for some time.
Founded by three-time Juno-winning Canadian-Inuk singer/songwriter Susan Aglukark, Arctic Rose strives to support Indigenous communities — particularly children and youth — in northern Canada, especially its most remote and isolated regions. In this challenging time of COVID-19, which hasn’t spared any corner of this vast land, executing the foundation’s annual Christmas Food Program is a chief priority. So far, food stock is solid for the Christmas holidays, said Aglukark, but Arctic Rose has deferred the operation until mid-January, when data suggests another food crisis is slated to hit those Nunavut communities.