For us, as the Status of Women, it is very important. Probably the most important part of the project is the life-long learning and having the women working in sustainable positions.
I think our project will be deemed a success by the government, because we have learned that the wraparound services for the women are crucial for them to succeed. They are women we assessed for marginalization. We did not go and say, “Who is the best in the class? These are the people we're going to help.” We wanted to help the people who had been under-represented and who needed help. Even the assessment process was geared to those women.
For us, it's been a wonderful program. We have two government departments currently trying their best to fund us to continue the project. We did get funding for a pilot project. And you are right; three years is not long enough, because what it does is create a need.
Because we are an NGO, we won't stop doing the work. That work will fall on the shoulders of Lorraine Phaneuf, Annemieke Mulders, and all the women who work there, because we are not going to turn away women who need help and who we think we can help.
We had two project people, but the whole team is only a staff of six. Everybody worked on the mining project in some capacity.