NGC and Battle of the Drums Join Forces to Introduce Garifuna at School

In a historic meeting on February twenty-sixth, between the Garifuna Language Commission, the Chief Executive Officer, as well as the Chief Education Officer in the Ministry of Education, approval was granted for the use of the Garifuna Language Curriculum in the teaching of the Garifuna Language in Schools Program.  This approval comes after years of dedicated effort and collaboration between the National Garifuna Council and the Battle of the Drums Secretariat.

 

Sheena Zuniga, President, National Garifuna Council

“It has been a journey all in an effort to get to this point.  The National Garifuna Council collaborated with the Battle of the Drums.  We decided [that] we needed to be on the forefront to try to retrieve our Garifuna language which has been dying over the years.  In an effort, we created the Garifuna Language Commission which includes Dr. Gwen Nunez-Gonzalez, Dr. Albarita Enriquez and Dativa Martinez.  Those three women have been on the forefront to create the Garifuna curriculum that we have currently submitted to the Ministry of Education.  Through that effort, we created the curriculum and we also applied for the professional development plan where we would be able to train Garifuna teachers in southern Belize to be able for those trainings to be part of their CPD hours.  It‘s a real historic event for us because we have been working for the past three years to get to this juncture.  We‘re glad that we would be able to have Garifuna language being taught in the six traditional Garifuna communities, starting in August and September of this coming year and we are hoping to launch this program in April in collaboration with our Garifuna Survival Day activities.”