Uniting Belizeans at Home and Abroad

Peter Morgan

Belizeans United For Equal Rights at Home and the Diaspora – it is a group that is aiming to create a movement under one banner that will bring about the unification of Belizeans at home and abroad. In short term they go by the acronym BUFERHD. They say BUFERHD intends to end the divide that exists between the Belizeans who live in Belize and those who live abroad. The movement, which is led by founder and President Derek Aikman, claims fight to establish an equal playing field for all Belizeans, as well as lobby for fight for equal access to education, employment, health care, housing, land distribution, economic and entrepreneurial opportunities. BUFERHD held its official launch on Thursday night in Ladyville and they brought in Jamaican Bishop Doctor Peter Morgan to help launch the movement with a weekend of activities. He wraps up his visit with a presentation on the Diaspora movement tonight at Friends of Friends in Ladyville. Doctor Morgan has been involved in the Jamaican Diaspora and upon his arrival he told us that he believes this movement can be beneficial to the development of Belize.

Bishop Dr. Peter Morgan, International Third World Leaders Association

“I am very excited to be Belize and I do believe that this is a very significant time for Belize. I am trusting that this weekend can be recorded as a historic moment for your people. One of the things that we will be featuring is the launch of BUFERHD and I think that this is going to be a very notable event because, I think, all across the globe in these days the Diaspora is playing a very significant role in the development of nations. And this has been seen over the many years and it is especially clear that the Caribbean peoples who have travelled and migrated all over the world, that they have never lost their attachment to the homeland. The Jamaicans, they have a very strong Diasporan movement; as a matter of fact, this coming weekend, they will have their bi-annual conference in Jamaica. And so when I heard that Mister Aikman had initiated a movement within the Belizean Diasporans, I was very excited about it and we talked a lot about it, as well I read some of his material on it. And I believe that to bring the Belizeans oversees back into the development of what is happening in the homeland could really go a very far way in encouraging development, economically, socially, and in so many different ways.”