Bio of Ifáṣínà Efunyemi Ifáṣínà Efunyemi is a Garifuna woman, human rights defender and advocate, educator, journalist, writer and poet from Belize. She has been in advocacy and volunteerism since age 14 while in high school at St. Catherine Academy and has continued on her path of being the voice of the voiceless through her involvement in numerous civil society organizations in Belize. These include the National Garifuna Council which she joined as a teenager and continues to be involved in to promote and preserve Garifuna culture. Since 2001, she has been volunteering with the Women’s Department in Dangriga where she lives. She was a co-founder of the Dangriga HIV/AIDS Society and was instrumental in developing and implementing the Powa fu Women project that was designed to respond to the feminization of HIV/AIDS. Her involvement in this project in 2003 led to her later co-founding the Productive Organization for Women in Action (POWA) which remains active in educating and empowering women and the wider community through HIV/AIDS education and outreach as well as addressing gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health, human rights and other issues.
She co-founded another women’s organization, Promoting Empowerment Through Awareness for Lesbian and Bisexual Women (PETAL), that also focuses on empowerment and advocacy for particularly lesbian and bisexual women. She is also a co-founder of the Belize History Association which is focused on promoting and accurately documenting Belize’s history. Resulting from her high level of activism, in 2019 she was awarded the United Nation’s Religion Fellowship by OutRight Action International and was also recognized by the Women and Family Support Department in Belize for her outstanding contribution to Belize as an advocate.
In addition to her advocacy work, she teaches fulltime at Stann Creek Ecumenical Junior College – Belizean History, Caribbean Studies, Research, Ethics and Business Communication. In her teaching career which began in 2008 upon her return from studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica, she received training and experience in marking Caribbean Studies for the Caribbean Examinations Council’s Caribbean Advance Proficiency Exams. She was the head coach of the SCEJC Debate Team that won the Social Security Board’s two consecutive National Debate Competitions.
Furthermore, in media, she remains active with a weekly radio show called Speak Out! on the local community radio station Hamalali NGC Radio in Dangriga. She also still functions as a correspondent for Love FM particularly during general and municipal elections. She has also done training with the Media Institute of the Caribbean and is also Belize’s Focal Point for the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM).
Ifáṣínà Efunyemi is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Media, Ethics, and Social Change from the University of Sussex (online).