KITCHENER -- An Erin Township woman is sending thousands of face masks and other personal protective equipment to remote Indigenous communities in northern Quebec.
The original goal was to send 2,000 to one community, but Tauni Sheldon has now collected enough PPE to supply an entire region.
“COVID is not picky about geography, so it has gotten into the arctic,” said Sheldon.
She began collecting the donations for communities in Nunavik, an Inuit fly-in region in northern Quebec
“Everybody everywhere deserves that same protection against COVID,” she said.
Sheldon says in the North, disposable masks cost up to $10 each.
“It is very concerning that when families are spending from $500 to $800 dollars a week just for food, I had wanted to offset some of that, alleviate some of costs for families,” Sheldon explained.
With concerns over cost, Sheldon decided to organize an effort to send disposable masks to Inukjuak, remote community of just under 2,000 people.
“I originally put out the word to collect 2,000 masks for Inukjuak, my home community in the north. And once I put the word out it just took off like wildfire.”
Sheldon says more than 15,000 masks were donated in less than a month.
She'll now be able to send PPE to all 14 communities in Nunavik, dividing the donations to match the population of each community.
“Kuujjuaq is the biggest community in Nunavik and they have 3,000 people in that community. And Ivujivik is one of the smaller communities, with only about 150.”
The masks are now on their way, costing roughly $2,000 dollars to deliver by Air Inuit, a fee also being partially covered by donations.
“The outpour of support has been so huge,” explained Sheldon.
