Posted on 12/21/2006 7:04:21 PM PST by DogByte6RER
Kwanzaa Principles Help to Serve Our Children
by Naeemah Carter
Baltimore Times
Originally posted 12/21/2006
The National CASA Association shares one unique volunteer opportunity
As the holiday season and New Year arrive, so does our increased attention to the needs of our families and communities. No matter what your holiday traditions may be, it is important to remember those around us who are less fortunate. Our children, often overlooked in the holiday season, need your help more than ever to make their lives more stable and safe.
Often, we search for the perfect time to get involved in personally rewarding causes in the midst of our busy schedules. As Kwanzaa approaches, we encourage you to use the seven principles of this African-American holiday to remember your call to service and the children who need you most. Each Kwanzaa principle focuses on family, culture and community, which all serve as cornerstones of African-American tradition. I invite you to join a local Maryland program of the National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer. Your work will directly impact and shape the life of a child who has been the victim of abuse and neglect. Now you will have a voice, through the National CASA Association volunteer opportunity, to help a child find a safe and permanent home.
1. Umoja (Unity)
In the United States, over 500,000 children are in foster care and 35 percent of these children are African American. In the state of Maryland, there are over 11,000 children in foster care and 75 percent of them are African American. CASA volunteer advocates are part of the team of people who determine what is in the best interest of these children. The National CASA Association seeks the commitment of individuals, along with churches, schools and social and civic organizations within our community, to help recruit dedicated men and women to serve as voices for our children.
2. Kujichagulia (Self-determination)
CASA volunteer advocates are determined to do their individual part to help rebuild families and provide solutions to child abuse and neglect within our community. As a CASA, you are appointed by a judge and empowered to advocate on behalf of the best interest of a child in court.
3. Ujima (collective work and responsibility)
CASA volunteer advocates are appointed by a judge to watch over the case of a child in need of a safe and permanent home. You are a part of a network of over 54,000 volunteer advocates in over 900 programs throughout the country - including a program in Prince George's County, who provide children with an objective voice in the court system. It is your responsibility as a CASA volunteer advocate to collaborate with caregivers, caseworkers, attorneys, judges and service providers in determining the best interest of these children. Collectively, we can help these children achieve stability and safe, permanent, loving homes.
4. Ujamaa (cooperative economics)
CASA volunteers advocate for child and family services to address and resolve issues of abuse and neglect of African-American children. The volunteer's contribution of time is a rewarding investment in these children's lives. If you cannot afford the time, your financial support helps to sustain the critical leadership and support necessary to serve more children. Your financial investment helps the National CASA Association and Maryland CASA programs recruit volunteer advocates from within our community, helps to ensure high-quality advocacy for our children across the country and helps make it possible for new CASA programs to be established within our communities across the country. Your time investment is equally as valuable.
5. Nia (purpose)
Currently, only 12 percent of the 54,000 volunteer advocates are African American. Your involvement helps to ensure that children don't get lost in the overburdened legal and child welfare system. Not only can your involvement mean an end to the cycle of child abuse and neglect in the life of a child, but it can also mean that a child has a better chance of having a safe and permanent home, completing school, getting a job, achieving success, and overcoming the impact caused by abuse and neglect in their lives. We need your help to further African American participation throughout the court and child welfare systems.
6. Kuumba (creativity)
As a CASA volunteer advocate, you help the courts and service providers fully understand the dynamics and needs of African-American children and families. Your life experiences, perspective and resources create an opportunity for the courts and agencies to become educated about and sensitive to our community, its culture, its people and its children. As a CASA volunteer advocate, you help develop and then recommend ways to bring safety and stability into children's lives.
7. Imani (faith)
CASA volunteer advocates believe that no child should be without a loving, caring family. CASA believes that every child has a right to a happy, safe childhood and a permanent home. You don't have to be a lawyer or a social worker.You just have to be a caring adult and believe this can be achieved. You have to believe that if we work together, we CAN make a difference in the life of a child. Join the National CASA Association to help fulfill our mission to make sure every child in our community
who needs a voice has one.
Keeping each of the seven Kwanzaa principles in mind, we encourage you to become a CASA volunteer advocate. You can contact a CASA program in your area by calling toll-free (888) 805-8457 or visiting online at www.nationalcasa.org. During this holiday season, we welcome you to join our family of 54,000 volunteers, everyday people like you, who are committed to addressing the needs and improving the lives of our children.
Naeemah Carter is a member of the African-American Advisory Committee of the National CASA Association. She is also a volunteer with the Prince George's County CASA program and the recipient of the 2006 National CASA Diversity Leadership Award. Carter, who lives in Beltsville, Md. and is the program manager for the Commonwealth Foundation in Silver Spring.
In 1971 Ron (sic Maulana) Karenga, Louis Smith, and Luz Maria Tamayo were convicted of felony assault and false imprisonment for assaulting and torturing two women from the United Slaves, Deborah Jones & Gail Davis. A May 14, 1971 article in the Los Angeles Times described the testimony of one of the women: "Deborah Jones, who once was given the Swahili title of an African queen, said she and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothes. She testified that a hot soldering iron was placed in Ms. Davis's mouth and placed against Ms. Davis's face and that one of her own big toes was tightened in a vise. Karenga, head of US, also put detergent and running hoses in their mouths, she said." They also were hit on the heads with toasters.
At Karenga's trial, the question arose as to Karenga's sanity. It is theorized that Karenga may have had a mental breakdown due to the stress of dealing with the violence and murders surrounding his United Slaves (US) organization and the Black Panther Party (BPP). His behavior became bizarre. And, at his trial, a psychiatrist's report stated the following: "This man now represents a picture that can be considered both paranoid and schizophrenic with hallucinations and illusions, inappropriate affect, disorganization, and impaired contact with the environment."
"Ujamaa (cooperative economics)"
I've seen this "word" Ujamaa, in the news, a lot, recently.
It's usually the surname of someone that the FBI/CIA/NSA/DHLS is looking for......
Many great men are not appreciated in their own times... and vice-versa, more or less. Thanks for the pic of the pompous, strutting little pr**k--I'd never seen what he looked like, now or in his "prime."
Sorry, I adopted my two black children, and don't need a hokey made up holiday to push socialism on them. I home school them to protect them from the socialist line.
Perhaps something could be done to prevent irresponsible production of children by people who have no ability to care for them?
Somebody is in a bad state of denial and has lost all touch with reality.
Mace Windu had a fur coat?
When I was little, I went to bed in my Ujamaas.
That black men plant their seeds like busy little bees going from flower to flower.......and that black women accept such casual and disrespectful treatment from their men.....is the most destructive aspect of modern black society.
Just something to think about next time you see some 'sistahs' acting like they're tough. They accept being treated like just another warm place to put it. And the children are the ones that pay dearly.
I've got my Kwanzaa toasters all shined up and ready!
WOOHOO!
Fake menorah
Don't ask me what white boy's doing there anyway. LOL!
He certainly would have kicked Dr. Ron "Maulana" Karenga's a$$.
BTW...
Just drop the name Kwanzaa, and call it Karenga.
God bless you for adopting these children! I hope they appreciate the values that you demonstrate.
When the priciple of Unity comes up, I know that it isn't the unity of all American, but the unity of Americans that identify more closely with being from Africa. Some of my ancestors were from Germany, yet I have nothing in common with Germany. Nice place, but.... I'm reminded of the PBS series that Henry Louis Gates did about tracing his "roots". No problem. But it was interesting when he asked his hostess what Africans think about Blacks in America, as they stood on the shore from which they were shipped. She was very uneasy, and answered after a rather pregnant pause, "We don't."
The White boy is the useful idiot! LOL! He feels left out. And if you look closely you'll notice he brought his lunch, see the paper bag...or is that a 40?
They're just thinking about the tourist $$$ they bring in on this trips to "find themselves."
"They're just thinking about the tourist $$$ they bring in on this trips to "find themselves.""
LOL!!! That and the laugh factor when one of the "pilgrims" knows only one word of the language and tries to fit in. Gates did that too. He only knew a greeting, and since he looked like everyone else, they'd start a conversation, only to leave him standing there embarrassed.
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