by Sista YaYa Marin Coleman
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Mar. 30, 2023
March 2021
2021 was UBAD Educational Foundation (UEF)’s 1st year of a 27-month collaboration rooted in “Food insecurity at the time of climate change: Sharing and learning from the bottom up responses in the Greater Caribbean Region.” This collective grassroots international initiative between social and academic partners included 5 community organizations in Belize, Colombia, Antigua and Barbuda, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica. The University of Bristol, The National University of Colombia, The University of Antwerp, and The University of the West Indies had scholars who supported the community organizers. This project was financed by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).
March 2022
United Black Association for Development Educational Foundation (UEF) Press Release: ”British Colonizers Visit to Belize in 2022 is an atrocity to our Afrikan Ancestors and Afrikan people living in Belize!” A paragraph from this 2-page press release stated:
“UEF reiterates the points contained in our letters to the Prime Minister of Belize and the Cabinet dated October 21 and November 29, 2021, that the Government of Belize has no legal or moral right to negotiate, speak, bargain, or act on behalf of our Afrikan Ancestors, Afrikan people, or our unborn Afrikan children in Belize about Afrikan Reparations with the British. Afrikan people within our Afrikan Heritage Communities worldwide are organizing, teaching, listening, documenting, and connecting with other Afrikans from the bottom up, to speak and act in our best interest so that we never ever experience the Maangamizi again.”
March 2023
UBAD Educational Foundation (UEF) organized a Zoom Meet & Greet with one of the 2 representatives of the public for the “Escazu Agreement” for Sub-Region 2. Nicole Leotaud from Trinidad and Tobago shared with the 13 participants from Saint Lucia, Grenada, Belize, and Guyana her 4-year draft strategy centered on communication, capacity building, champion mobilizing, and connecting with the people and organizations in the Caribbean. This Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation, and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean “is the first legally binding instrument in the world to include provisions on environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs) and is also the first environmental agreement adopted in Latin America and the Caribbean.”