Return to Louisiana - Spring '06

At least two of our members will be returning to Louisiana this Spring to continue work in Hurricane Katrina affected areas. Progress on recovery is slow to non-existent with much of New Orleans in the same state as it was when we last had people there.

Our initial plans are to canvas the entire region collecting as many stories as possible in audio and video format and then making them available to the public at large through existing, or perhaps our own, outlets. The recovery is so far behind and the need is so great for volunteer manpower in and around New Orleans that we feel this will be the best way for us to have a much impact as possible in the minimum amount of time.

We have had a request to help compile a list of individuals and groups installing communication infrastructure and to assist with expanding existing networks and maintaining whatever is up already.

We are also going to visit faith based communities who are active in the recovery effort in order to hook them up with similar networks here in Canada who are willing to help. The University of Winnipeg/Menno Simmons College International Development Studies Department is supporting these efforts and we hope that we can foster a relationship between the communities to help speed up the painfully slow rebuilding process.

In order to do this, we are going to have to raise enough money to keep ourselves fed as well as travel costs, cellphones and related bills and rent on an apartment. CU Wireless has once again helped with arranging FCC clearance to go south but they are unable to provide us with any further funding. We have been offered a reasonably priced room in East Orleans and we are very fortunate for this as the homeless rate will likely be over 15% by the time we arrive. We will need $5-10 thousand dollars in U.S. funds to maintain a presence of a further 6 months in the region.

You can donate through our paypal link or by sending a cheque payable to Canadian Communications Relief Project Inc., c/o 1-1549 St. Mary's Road, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, R2M 5G9