We offer affordable one-on-one Garifuna language tutoring through Skype. Your participation provides economic opportunity for our impoverished village. For more information, please write to us at: info@blackcaribnation.org.

Women

The Black Carib are a matriarchal society, where older women own the land, make decisions, and are keepers of history through story telling and song.

Garifuna Grandmother's Council – The Garifuna Grandmother's Council is a group of respected elders who share and preserve their wisdom and knowledge of history and ceremony through song. We are a united voice on preserving our land and culture, defining the needs of elders, consulting to other organizations in Livingston, and providing a social justice system for our neighborhoods.

Single moms live in extreme poverty; a weekly menu for the children can consist of tortillas with beans, rice with beans, bread with beans, no meat or vegetables for days at a time, causing malnutrition and poor school performance. This extreme poverty and lack of economic opportunity has forced most men to migrate to the US in The Grand Diaspora, sending little money back and creating a generation of children with no father figures.

Many women here make $3 a day, braiding tourist's hair, selling baked goods on the street, washing hotel sheets by hand, or sending their 13-year old daughters to get money from their "uncles".

Many women here make $3 a day, braiding tourist's hair, selling baked goods on the street, washing hotel sheets by hand, or selling their 13-year old daughter's virginity to foreigners on vacation.

There is little knowledge of basic health care, vitamin, dental care. There is no money for cavity filling; the national children's hospital just pulls their teeth. One 7-year old had all of her molars pulled for lack of dental care education and lack of money to buy new toothbrushes and tooth paste.

Madres Soltares Caribes was formed to empower women through education and economic development. Several organizations in Livingston are contributing to the training of these women.They are learning basic business skills, sewing, cooking, alternative therapy, literacy, school aid, babysitting, parenting, and community advocacy skills.

We also have a boxing class, called "The Boxing Church", where women can relieve some of their stress and get exercise.

We hope to create a credit union and micro-loan program for the women. Your consulting experience and donations will go a long way to help these women.

Girls for a Change, based in Santa Cruz, California, has given inspiration to our Garifuna girls to change their community by cross-cultural outreach, health care education, safety for the pueblo, dance and song preservation, elder care and video living history, computer technology, business skills and the creation of Livingston's first newspaper.

We provide the tools, resources, partnerships and support girls need to gain the voice, ability, and problem-solving capacity to realize their full potential. The girls identify challenges in their communities and design and implement creative solutions to address them as a team. Our Coaches teach the girls essential project planning and execution skills to aid them in designing and implementing their social change project.

Girls gain an increase in four areas:

• 1. Self-efficacy (belief in one's personal power to produce an effect)
• 2. Authentic relationships with women volunteers, called coaches
• 3. Social Change skills (critical thinking, problem solving, resource development, and networking)
• 4. The ability and confidence to express and implement their ideas

How you can help - we seek Spanish speaking volunteers to work with the girls to help empower and teach skill sets that are important for them to enter the world.