MCA Chiefs Take Time to Deliver Community Care Packages to Akwesasne

By Mahlon Smoke

December 11th Council came together and packed up at least 700 handmade Community Care Packages onto three buses, ready to deliver care packages to every community member in Akwesasne. What started as a suggestion snowballed into a community-wide delivery for important items to have during these turbulent times. With many lives changed by the Pandemic and many who are struggling, the MCA Chiefs decided to take time to create packages with specific items to protect everyone against the virus.

Since March, The world has been on Lockdown and many communities had to adjust to masks, social distancing, and fluctuation in covid cases. So much of the community is still fighting and protecting themselves against the virus that has impacted Akwesasne in various different ways.

Since the second wave, Mohawk Council came up with a plan to distribute items of importance to the three northern districts of Akwesasne, Kawehno:ke, Kana:takon, and Tsi Snaihne. At 9 am, the Chiefs who spearheaded the idea, Chief Vanessa Adams, Chief April Adams-Phillips, Chief Carolyn Francis, Chief Connie Lazore, and Chief Julie Phillips-Jacobs, along with a team of volunteers, climbed aboard the AMBE buses and went door to door delivering the Community Care Packages to each house. In the case that someone had not been home, the volunteers would take note on their sheets and leave contact information for someone within the household to contact Mohawk Government to get their Commnuity Care Package.

“This Pandemic has been going on for so long, everyone is getting so tired and want things to go back to normal.” Said Chief Carolyn Francis about where the idea for the Community Care Packages stemmed from community fatigue from the ongoing pandemic. “We’re not at that point where we can go back to normal though.”

“If we prepared for the second wave, which we knew was coming, and help our community be healthy, give them ideas on how to prepare, and give them the supplies needed, everyone would be better off. Chief Francis along with a team of her fellow chiefs came together and planned out how they would go about doing that. The Community Care Packages came with emergency numbers, guides on what to do if one suspects they’re sick, how to prepare for a two-week quarantine and more important information. They also ordered thermometers, masks, disinfectant wipes, as well as signs to inform anyone that they or someone in the house is a vulnerable person who is expecting a package.

From 9am to 5pm Council and their group of volunteers rode the AMBE buses to as many houses as they could to hand-deliver the care packages. Expressing the idea of togetherness, remaining safe in these uncertain times, and staying healthy.