Garifuna pioneer will be at St Vincent reunion
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| Published on Friday, July 3, 2009 |
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NEW YORK, USA -- The Garifuna Coalition USA has announced that Dionisia (Nicha) Amaya will attend the Garifuna Reunion in St Vincent and the Grenadines (Yurumein) scheduled for July 18 - 23.
Amaya is a seventy six year old retired teacher from the New York City Board of Education who now resides in Honduras, where she operates the Barauda Bilingual School. She is the pioneer of the Garifuna Movement in the United States and as a result was featured in the book Making it in America: A source book on Eminent Ethnic Americans by Elliott Robert Barkan and was honored for her community organizing work with a tribute by Congressman Edplphus Townsend from New York City in the United States House of Representatives in 2003.
She’s also a founding member of Garinagu Women Pro Education (MUGAMA, Spanish Acronym), an organization whose goal has been to empower Garifuna Women and was the first to promote the Garifuna Culture in New York City, as well as the first to celebrate April 12th, as the Arrival of the Garifunas to Central America.
Amaya was one of the organizers of the First Garifuna Summit Meeting in New York City in July of 1991 with the theme “Uwala Busiganu, Garinagu Wagia,” Don’t be ashamed, We are Garifunas. As a result of the Summit Meeting, and the increased promotion of the Garifuna Culture, New York City’s Board of Education recognized Garifuna speaking children with Limited English Proficiency as being entitled to Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language and were to receive instructional and/or support services in Garifuna. The outcome was the first Garifunas hired as teachers’ assistants to support these children. Amaya also organized the first HIV/AIDS seminar in the Garifuna Community in 1991 by the founders of the organization known as Hondurans Against AIDS, Inc.
In 1992, she co-organized the Second Garifuna Summit Meeting in Los Angeles, California with the theme “Separation, Dispersion, Reunification.” it was the first time that Garifunas from St Vincent, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and the United States got together under one roof. The only representative missing was from Nicaragua and it was due to the political situation faced by the country at that time. It is at this Summit that that the Commemoration of the 200th Anniversary of the Garifunas Arrival to Central America was first conceived and in 1995 Amaya organized the Garifuna Bicentennial Committee that was responsible for the Bicentennial Commemoration in Honduras, in April of 1997.
In May of 1998, she was a co-founder of the Garifuna Coalition USA, Inc and one of its original directors and in May 2000 became a co founder of the New Horizon Investment Club in New York City.
"We are proud and honored to make Nicha’s dream a reality, by joining us in this historic journey, she’s truly the pioneer of the Garifuna Movement in the United States," said Rejil Solis, Chairman of the Board of the Garifuna Coalition USA, Inc. | | | | Reads : 793 | | | |
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