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A teenager from the Mosquito Grizzly Bears Head Lean Man First Nation wanted to make sure those within her community didn’t feel so alone over the holiday season.
The Indigenous community, located just a few kilometres south of the Battlefords, endured multiple deaths, including suicide by an adult near the holiday season. Couple those with the isolation due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and 17-year-old Hailey Rose wanted to make a difference with youth mental health.
Rose, the Saskatchewan Ambassador of Hope for the organization We Matter, decided to create mental health “care packages” for 30 youth members of the community.
“A lot of us are alone right now,” she said Thursday. “They were so restricted because they weren’t able to leave their reserve during Christmas. I really felt for these kids because all the other kids were able to go to school still, and they were able to go out and do things.”
The packages were created for boys and girls, and included toques, water bottles, a journal, comfort food, tea and a Christmas craft.
Rose said the impacts were immediate, with the youths and their families reaching out to her to thank her during their tough times.
“It was just a good feeling that I could give back like that, and do something for my community — even if it just made one person smile,” she explained.
“I know right now, a lot of people are dealing with mental health so I wanted to give them extra support … As an Ambassador of Hope, basically our job is to support other youth and give them a resource to reach out to you.”
Rose explained that within the holiday season, the community had anywhere from five to 10 active cases of COVID at any time. The community also was faced with losing one of its members due to COVID-19.
“It was a really, really tough time for those Mosquito residents out there,” Rose said.
Currently, Rose believes COVID is still impacting the community, but to a lesser extent. She said she believes there are still a few positive cases, but things have opened up a bit for on-reserve members.