Members of the Bronx’s Garifuna community were recently spotlighted
in a NYC Health vaccination ad. Photo courtesy NYC Health
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BRONX TIMES REPORTER,10 SEPT. 17-23, 2021 BTR
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BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA
More than 200 people in
the Bronx’s tight-knit Garifuna
community — an Afroindigenous
population emanating
from the Caribbean
island of St. Vincent who was
exiled to the Honduran and
Guatemalan coasts — lost
their lives to COVID-19.
For Mirta Colon, vaccinating
members of a non-
English speaking community
struggling to ward off
misinformation and barriers
to public health access, has
been done through events at
Crotona Park in the Bronx.
“We don’t schedule these
events for a ‘next Sunday’ or
anything like that,” she said.
“We’ll pop through Crotona
Park and see people playing
soccer or barbequing and
inform them of how the vaccine
can give them their best
chance at a healthy life.”
Colon, a longtime Garifuna
activist and social
worker, said that at an event
two weeks ago at Crotona
Park, 32 members of the
Garifuna or other non-English
dominant communities
were vaccinated via a mobile
vaccine truck in a single day.
But Colon said they are
only scratching the surface
when comes to getting the overwhelming
majority of the community
vaccinated against the
coronavirus. There are an estimated
200,000 members of the
Garifuna community living in
New York City, with unoffi cial
estimates counting the Garifuna
population in the Bronx at
more than 100,000.
“We know there’s still many
out there who aren’t vaccinated,
so this is an ongoing effort,”
she said.
In May, a Kaiser Family
Foundation survey found that
only about 25% of “potentially
undocumented” immigrants in
the United States received their
vaccine, with a large share of
non-English speaking adults
expressing concerns that refl
ect access-related barriers to
vaccination.
However, in New York City
and other large U.S. cities, vaccination
rates among Latinos
surpass that of white populations.
Roughly 59% of Latinos
aged 18 and older have been
fully vaccinated, in comparison
to 56% for whites, according
to the New York City Health
Department. Latinos represent
29.1% of the city’s population
and non-Hispanic whites are
32.1%.
Free vaccinations clinics
like those held by community
groups such as Hondurans
Against AIDS, CASA Yurumein,
the largest Garífuna community
organization in New
York, along with Bronx Rising
Initiative have helped make
headway into vaccination rates
for non-English speaking communities.
The clinics act as a followup
for individuals who received
their fi rst dose and also provides
fi rst-time vaccinations on
a walk-up basis.
“We still have a long way to
go,” said Selina Forbs-Guevara,
who has been leading Hondurans
Against AIDS’ outreach
effort. “Especially in our community
where individuals may
be isolated due to language barriers.”
Fear of deportation and
lack of accessibility of undocumented
immigrants to government
programs have been
cited by community groups as
a major barrier for unvaccinated
and undocumented immigrants.
While some form of identifi
cation is required across the
nation, the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security pledged to
ensure that all immigrants, regardless
of status are entitled
to get vaccinated against COVID
19.
However, around 75% of
state websites fail to mention
this explicitly. More so,
word of mouth and misinformation
has only exacerbated
fears of government action
and vaccine hesitancy, Colon
said.
“We’ll hear everything
from a tracking chip in the
vaccine to second-hand stories
about someone dying
from the vaccine or being unable
to have a kid,” she said.
“But ultimately it’s misinformation,
and it’s harmful
because we already lost 200
or more people to this pandemic
and this vaccine is all
we have right now.”
Bronx’s Garifuna community is
fi nding pathways to vaccination
link
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