Dear Friend,

As the COVID-19 epicenter creeps its way across the Global South and governments are ignoring the needs of the most vulnerable and using repressive stay-at-home orders and other policies to criminalize organizing. Much like in the US, Black communities are disproportionately affected and they are having to also face another epidemic - a long history of racial inequity caused by colonialism and white supremacy.

*I'm writing today because our partners need your support now more than ever. [ [link removed] ]*

Our partners at the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) utilized their tight-knit community organizing in Garifuna, Afro-Indigenous communities to combat COVID-19 and to reconnect with their ancestral roots. They also developed voluntary security details to limit outsiders into communities to reduce transmission rates.

While OFRANEH managed to insulate their communities from COVID-19 and the hunger epidemic that the strict government lockdown during COVID-19 has caused in other communities, they are facing a different crisis - the struggle for Black life. For decades Garifuna communities have come under attack for defending their ancestral territory from the tourism industry, land speculators, the military, extractive industries, and narco-traffickers - and have continued to organize to protect their communities and identities.

The murder of Edwin Fernández demonstrates the larger threat facing Black social movement activists around the globe. Edwin provided security in a community OFRANEH was doing COVID-19 relief and was murdered in front of his children for refusing to give up one of the keys to a security gate. *He died protecting his community…*

OFRANEH leader, Miriam Miranda, has routinely been harassed, wrongfully jailed, and threatened because of her work defending Garifuna communities and ancestral territories. "Our lands and identities are critical to our lives. For us, the struggle for our territories and our commons and our natural resources is of primary importance to preserve ourselves as a people," said Miriam. *She continues her work because the Garifuna people's very existence is on the line...*

The struggles for Black land, territory, and lives are global struggles in opposition to white supremacy, anti-Blackness, and capitalism. From the colonization of African countries by European settlers, to slavery, to the continuing structurally racist policies that deny basic human rights - *there is a cruel legacy that links the struggle for Black lives everywhere in the world. *

Now is the time for us to stand in solidarity with social movements like OFRANEH. *Now is the time for us to raise their voices and fund their struggles.* [ [link removed] ]Now is the time for us to unite behind a just recovery based on long-term systems change.

In solidarity,

Chung-Wha Hong
Executive Director


P.S. I urge you to take a moment to honor those like Edwin - who we have lost in the struggle - and those like Miriam - who continue on - *with the gift of your solidarity and your financial support*. [ [link removed] ]