YWCA Agvvik invites Iqaluit’s less fortunate for Christmas Eve dinner

Suny Jacob, executive director of YWCA Agvvik Nunavut in Iqaluit, left, and Rosemary Wall, director of the Qimaavik women’s shelter, with a set of gifts they’ve prepared for the group’s Dec. 24 Christmas Eve dinner. (PHOTO BY PETER VARGA)

Christmas is a time of giving and festivity, and YWCA Agvvik Nunavut in Iqaluit will be ready, Dec. 24, to make sure no one misses out.

The society’s fourth annual Christmas Eve dinner will offer a holiday meal, a food basket and gifts for the homeless and other less fortunate families in the Nunavut capital.

“There are many less fortunate people in the community who have no place to go, and nothing to receive,” said Suny Jacob, executive director of YWCA Agvvik.

Gifts for children are particularly important, she said. The society will also offer food baskets for the first time this year.

“There are families who have no access to any of these during Christmas time, and we think it’s extremely important that we do this, especially at this festive time,” Jacob said.

The society hosted about 150 guests at last year’s dinner. They expect at least as many this year, and will be ready to serve 175.

“We’re doing our best to accommodate as many as we can, because we seeing an increase every year,” she said, pointing out that the first dinner in 2011 hosted 75 men, women and children.

Based in Iqaluit, YWCA Agvvik provides services to women of the Baffin region who have fled unsafe homes or are homeless.

The society runs the Qimaavik Transition House in Apex, a shelter for women fleeing violence, and Sivummut House in Iqaluit for women and women-led families at risk of homelessness.

The annual dinner is a chance for the society to give support to all who are in need over the holiday season.

“We just want to be sure that anybody who would like to celebrate Christmas can get to do so with a full belly,” said Sheila Levy, president of YWCA Agvvik.

Her hope over the holidays is “that all Nunavummiut take care and be sure that they behave in a way that’s supportive, loving and caring to their family and friends, so that everybody can enjoy Christmas without violence and without fear,” Levy said.

That reflects YWCA’s general mandate, she said.

The need for support services and shelter for women and mothers in troubled situations rises every year.

Occupancy rates at the Qimaavik shelter for battered women, which has a capacity of 21, hit its highest levels ever in 2014 — amounting 95 to 125 per cent per month.

“While we make every effort to assist them, we often lack funds to provide more than the basic essentials,” YWCA Agvvik reported this month.

Occupancy rates at the Sivummut homeless shelter are also at capacity.

A six-unit transitional housing project, to be built next summer at $1.5 million, will add space.

The society’s initial goal, to build a 10-unit housing project at $4.5 million, fell short this year due to lack of funding — but is still included in Agvvik’s long-term plans.

“It’s really important,” said Levy. All too often, housing shortages keep women from being able to leave the shelters, to resume or re-start their lives.

“We really want to support women to become independent,” she said. “Unfortunately, for transitional housing, there is a much greater need than six units. I’m sure we’ll be able to fill them in the blink of an eye.

“But we have to start somewhere, and every drop in the bucket helps.”

The society has marked the housing project as its biggest priority for 2015, and its biggest challenge for the new year, Jacob said.

“Securing the financing and putting people to work to get it started is a huge initiative for us,” she said.

YWCA Agvvik Nunavut’s Christmas Eve dinner in Iqaluit takes place at 6:00 p.m., Dec. 24, at the Qayuktuvik soup kitchen.