[IPSM] Residential school healing programs face cuts

[Robin Taylor]

Story with links at
http://vancouver.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=bc_aboriginal-abuse20050301

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RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL HEALING PROGRAMS FACE CUTS

VANCOUVER - Nearly two dozen healing programs for native residential school
victims  in B.C. are on the federal  government chopping block.

Forty-four of the 70 programs shut down last year and funding for the rest is
running out.

Last week's federal budget contained $40 million for the programs nationally, a
move welcomed by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

But Sherry Shaw of the foundation's operation in B.C. says this province's share
is not enough to prevent the closures.

"We have really only just begun the healing process. So now we can look back at
the last five years and see how far we've come and hope and pray this can
continue," she says.

Shaw says many victims are worried they'll have nowhere to go for help once
their healing programs have shut down.

It's estimated that more than 20,000 B.C. aboriginal people attended residential
schools –  where Shaw says many  suffered emotional, sexual and physical
abuses that remain unresolved.

She says to find the victims all you have to do is look to homeless shelters and
prisons.

"Abuses on every level--emotional, sexual, physical abuses--have just been
profound in all of the communities," says Shaw.

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