Gainesville-based immigrant advocates celebrate third anniversary at Matheson Museum

Residents and community leaders gathered at the Matheson History Museum to discuss ways to enhance the quality of life for immigrants in the city.

Held Friday at the museum at 513 E. University Ave., the event was part of the Gainesville Immigrant Neighbor Inclusion Initiative's (GINI) third anniversary celebration.

Guests enjoyed food catered by Flavorful and Sweet Tooth Creations and listened to updates from GINI on how its working to build a community safer and more inclusive for immigrant neighbors in Gainesville and Alachua County.

According to GINI, the immigrant community makes up 10% of the population in both Alachua County and Gainesville and accounts for 25% of the growth over the past five years.

Robin Lewy, director of the Rural Women’s Health Project (RWHP) and one of the community leaders of GINI, said the initiative has seen progress in helping the immigrant community in Gainesville, but there is more work to be done.

According to its website, the Rural Women’s Health Project’s mission primary focus is on immigrants and women living with HIV/AIDS.

“It’s important that we celebrate and create opportunities for immigrants and build safety and inclusion for foreign born community members,” Lewy said.

The group's accomplishments includes creating language cards for speakers who are fluent in Arabic, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, Spanish and Portuguese, Lewy said.

GINI also created a language identification guide for immigrants to share which language they speak when they are in need of an interpreter.

Lewy said GINI, with the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center, will be accepting signatures for a petition to demand Alachua County Public Schools provide more opportunities and information for parents and children whose first language is not English.

“I saw kindergarteners translating to their parents,” Lewy said. “All of us should have the same access to the school’s information. We want to continue meeting with community members to make sure we are creating a better life here.”

GINI members created an exhibit titled “We Are Here” that documents stories from the multilingual community in North Central Florida with the help of artist Valentino Sierra Nino.

The stories were spoken in Akan Twi, Aymara, Arabic, Bengali, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Mandarin Chinese, Kazakh, Q’anjob’al and Vietnamese, and translated into collages that represent what language means to them.

Lewy said the exhibit will last through December.

Ethan Maia De Needell, immigrant programs manager for RWHP, introduced the speakers during the celebration.

The speakers during the event were Laura Gonzales, associate professor in the Department of English at the University of Florida and director of Language Access Florida; Gracia Fernandez, senior executive assistant at the Department of Communications with City of Gainesville; Veronica Robleto, ID program director and legal navigator at the Human Rights Coalition of Alachua County; Adriana Menendez, social service manager at the Rural Women's Health Project and Awa Kaba and Aisse Kane, co-owners of Flavorful, which specializes in African fusion cuisine.

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Kaba and Kane said GINI is a great resource to network with like-minded individuals who are committed to helping the immigrant community.

Kane, a native of Senegal, and Kaba, a native of the Ivory Coast, said their love for cooking brought them together to create Flavorful.

“A community that eats together, stays together,” Kane said. “No matter what it is, if everybody comes together with an open mind and brings what they use from their heritage to work together, that’s what makes it special.”

Kaba said she appreciates the organizers of GINI for their work to ensure the voice of the immigrant community is heard.

“They have an amazing administration and they bring individuals together,” Kaba said. “They take into consideration what the people say and move forward to make the community better.”

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Residents, leaders gather in East Gainesville to celebrate immigrants.