Ajunnginiq Centre Awarded International Polar Year Funding for TV shows on Inuit Health
NEWS RELEASE
July 14, 2008
OTTAWA, ON — The Ajunnginiq Centre at the National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO) has been awarded $400,000 in funding from the Government of Canada International Polar Year (IPY) program to produce three live, phone-in TV shows in the Inuit language about health and wellness issues that matter to Inuit.“Phone-in television shows are such a popular way to share information in the North,” says Dianne Kinnon, director of the Ajunnginiq Centre at NAHO. “We see these TV shows as a great tool for researchers working in Inuit regions to share scientific research with Inuit, and for Inuit to ask them how their research will benefit their communities.”
The Ajunnginiq Centre at NAHO will take the lead on this international project that involves partnerships with other Inuit organizations, researchers, community-based health workers, and broadcasters in Inuit regions of Canada, Greenland and Alaska. This television project will bring health information, pre-recorded video stories and panelists from successful Inuit community health projects and interesting scientific research to television screens across northern regions.
Through IPY funding for communications and outreach projects, the Ajunnginiq Centre and its television project team will develop three television shows, with each episode focusing on one of the following:
– Inuit youth resilience and coping skills.
– Inuit men’s emotional, physical and mental health.
– Inuit midwifery and maternal child health.
The shows will be aired in the Inuit language, with English captions. An Inuk broadcaster will host the three-part series and moderate discussions with researchers, health workers, community members and viewers about IPY health research as it relates to the episode theme. Time will be provided for viewers watching live on TV or through Web-cast to call in or e-mail questions, allowing community members to learn more about the research that’s taking place in their communities.
The writing, pre-recording and production will get underway this year, with the shows slated to be broadcast on Aboriginal stations and through Web-cast in spring 2009.
The television project team includes the Ajunnginiq Centre at the National Aboriginal Health Organization, the National Inuit Youth Council, Inuit Communications Systems Limited, EnTheos Films, the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and researcher Grace Egeland and the coordinating committees of the IPY-funded Qanuippittali? Inuit Health Survey.
The majority of the funding for this project is being provided by International Polar Year. International Polar Year 2007-2008 is the largest-ever international program of scientific research focused on the Earth’s polar regions. The Ajunnginiq Centre has also received a grant from the Canadian Institute of Health Research Team in Circumpolar Chronic Disease Prevention, led by Dr. Kue Young at the University of Toronto.
The Government of Canada has provided $100 million to fund a total of 44 Canadian research projects selected for IPY 2007-2008. Canada has also allocated an additional $5.2 million to fund communications and training and outreach projects, as part of its International Polar Year program. These projects will help raise awareness about the Canadian Arctic and its peoples, promote IPY and polar science and research, and foster greater understanding of the importance of the polar regions among Canadians and other countries.
For media inquiries, contact:
Denise Rideout Communications Officer, Ajunnginiq Centre, NAHO
Toll-free: 1-877-602-4445 ext. 245
Direct: (613) 760-3516
E-mail: drideout@naho.ca
For background information, please see:
www.naho.ca/inuit/e/whatsnew/IPYTVSeries.php
