In the spirit of people-to-people solidarity, help us fill a 53' 18-wheeler truck for the Tools, Youth Activities and Furniture Drive for Mishkeegogamang Ojibway Nation this spring!

Our priorities for this drive are: TOOLS & BUILDING MATERIALS, YOUTH SPORTS EQUIPMENT, FURNITURE for sleeping

Please watch this short video on Colonialism and the Housing Crisis in Mishkeegogamang Ojibway Nation: https://youtu.be/AK-UHoFfNwQ

Please help outreach and support our fundraising to make this drive possible!: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/tools-and-furniture-drive-for-mishkeegogamang

Join our us APRIL 25 for our volunteer meet-up! https://www.facebook.com/events/1436793703287855/

We will be collecting donations and doing pick-ups of useful items in May 2015. For more info: www.furnituredrivesolidarity.wordpress.com

More information:

Mishkeegogamang First Nation is an Ojibwa nation located 500km north of Thunder Bay. Like other northern communities struggling against colonial dispossession, Mishkeegogamang faces traumatizing poverty despite billions of dollars of resources being extracted from their territory by the gold mining industry. A Northwestern Health Unit report stated that as many as 21 people live under one roof, and it is not uncommon for people to sleep in shifts to assure everyone access to a bed.

In the face of the ongoing colonial injustice of a housing crisis and traumatizing poverty, members of Mishkeegogamang and the CUPE 3903 First Nations Solidarity Working Group are organizing a drive for furniture for sleeping, youth sports equipment, tools and building materials. A truck will make the 28 hour drive north to bring the useful items from Toronto at the end of May 2015. We will be fundraising in April 2015, and collecting donations of useful items in May 2015. This drive is a follow-up to our successful first Furniture Drive in December 2014.

While the initiative in December 2014 was successful, it only reached a fraction of the community as the need is so significant. Also, the response in Toronto to the call-out for donations was overwhelmingly well-received, so we know we will be able to bring much more. We are doing another drive with the same focus on furniture for sleeping. We are also responding to the feedback from the last drive in prioritizing youth sports equipment, tools and building materials.

For more info: www.furnituredrivesolidarity.wordpress.com

What We Need

We need to fundraise $4,500 to cover the costs of the fuel to drive the truck to Mishkeegogamang Ojibway Nation. $1,500 will go towards the costs of cargo van and storage unit rentals. All the items will be donations and picked up by volunteers. Please help make this initiative possible!!

The Impact

In filling a 53' truck, we are able to send the equivalent of the volume of a small house of furniture, tools, equipment, building materials.

For a better idea of scale: in December 2014, after a month of collecting donations, we were able to fill the truck with about 30 couches, 30 mattresses, 10 bed frames, 40 chairs, 10 dressers, kitchen appliances, 30 boxes of kids toys, 200 bags of warmclothes, 75 bags of bedding, 50 boxes of jackets and much, much more. We filled 5 10' by 15' storage units. After we filled the truck, we had a storage unit left. We gave what we still had to Native Men's Residence and Toronto Council Fire in Toronto.

Now we'll do it again but with a focus on toold and building materials, youth sports equipment as well as furniture for sleeping.