Garifuna youth hold convention

This weekend, more than a hundred young Belizeans are expected to gather in the old capital as part of the seventh annual National Garifuna Council Youth Arm convention. According to organizers, topics on the table will include HIV/AIDS awareness, Garifuna spirituality, and career development. Belize City branch president Carmichael Polonio told News Five the yearly event is just one way of keeping the Garifuna culture alive and kicking.

Carmichael Polonio, Pres., Bz. City Garifuna Council Youth Arm
?It?s a time that Garifuna young people from all over the country, our ten different branches, come together to talk about current social issues and also other challenges that are facing the young Garifuna people and also to just come together, have fun, and make friends from all different parts of the country.?

?If you don?t celebrate Garifuna culture, if you don?t practice it, then how will you learn it, how will you know it? It?s very important for our culture to go out and wear traditional clothing, to dance, to eat our food, to learn things, to hear the stories. Because it?s only through that that we?ll be able to teach it on to future generations and have the Garifuna culture stay alive.?

The event opened this afternoon on the grounds of the Stella Maris School in Belize City. Anyone interested in participating can still register for sessions on Saturday and Sunday. The cost is ten dollars.