I would like to take a step back and share with you that we aboriginal women across Canada recognize the importance of the advocacy work we have been doing with our families and compiling all this information. We were able to do this because we had that close connection and there wasn't the suspicion or fear that the information they were sharing would be misused. We were able to collect all that data and set up the database we now have in place.
When our funding came to an end in March of last year, we thought we would be able to continue this important work. Obviously we weren't able to reach all those women victims at the community level, and we felt this was ongoing important work. However, when we were working with Status of Women Canada, we understood these new criteria you're talking about were in place. The new criteria focus on public education, community awareness, and community responsiveness, which did not fit into the ongoing work we had been doing under the Sisters in Spirit program. We accepted that and said those new areas were equally important.
However, we had hoped to be able to continue that work with the families and the justice departments to gather that information. Obviously we feel it would have enhanced their work in finding unsolved murders and working for missing and murdered aboriginal women. We honestly believed we would be crucial in bringing that about. So there was that discrepancy.