Thanks to a Canadian aid effort, several indigenous communities in Arctic Russia are experiencing relief in what's quickly become a winter of shortages.

A Canadian Inuit-owned First Air jet loaded with $500,000 worth of humanitarian-aid supplies and a team of Canadian officials arrived in the Russian Far East this week. It carried food to help feed hundreds of Inuit, Chukchi and Yupik people in the isolated Chukotka region of north-west Russia.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier, president of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, which represents Inuit peoples around the world, said the Inuit Express project was ahead of schedule. She said project member Terry Fenge telephoned from Serenniki on Thursday and reported no problems and that 200 of the 540 boxes of aid supplies -- including flour, sugar, cooking oil, pasta and medical kits -- had already been distributed to needy families.

The team moves on to the communities of Yakrakynkot and Enurmino over the weekend.

Fenge expected to find real hardships in Chukotka, and Watt-Cloutier says he found conditions were as bad as expected.

"He said he felt Serenniki was on the edge," she said, "They've just run out of everything and some of them were trying to hunt in traditional umiaqs -- skin-covered boats -- held together with string and rope."

Russia is facing a difficult winter following a finaincial crisis last August. As well, some of the isolated indigenous communities have been hit particularly hard as fuel supplies run low and temperatures drop to -50C.

Watt-Cloutier said the idea for participation in a relief effort came when the Russian Association of Indigenous People sent a letter to Ottawa in October appealing for help.

Watt-Cloutier asked the federal government for help, and the resulting Inuit Express project now includes he participation of the Canadian International Development Agency, the Canadian Red Cross Society and the federal departments of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

But Watt-Cloutier stresses that Inuit Express is not simply a program for handing out supplies.

"We have to start thinking long-term and open talks about what to do with Russia's indigenous people," she says. "When we talk about building capacity for growth, it's not just humanitarian aid."

Watt-Cloutier said Fenge had reported a positive reaction among the aid recipients.

"People who met the team were weeping in gratitude," she says.

1. Thanks to a Canadian aid effort, whom are several indigenous communities in Arctic Russia experiencing in what's quickly become a winter of shortages?