13331: Hermantin: S. Florida activist honored for work (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Sun-Sentinel

S. Florida activist honored for work

By Madeline Baró Diaz
Miami Bureau
Posted October 1 2002

MIAMI · The Ford Foundation is giving Haitian activist Marleine Bastien a
national leadership award and $100,000 to help her efforts on behalf of
Haitian immigrants.

Bastien, 43, executive director of Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miyami (Haitian Women of
Miami), said she was shocked when she heard she won a Leadership for a
Changing World award.

"I was screaming at the top of my lungs," said Bastien, whose organization
offers services to South Florida's Haitian community. "It was a very
competitive, challenging and involved process."

Bastien will be the only South Floridian receiving an award tonight at the
Ford Foundation in New York. The Ford Foundation, a nonprofit grant-making
organization, received about 1,400 nominations for the awards and chose 36
people representing 20 organizations dealing with issues including
affordable housing, AIDS, immigration and the environment. The selection
process included a site visit and interviews in the communities.

The Ford Foundation launched the Leadership for a Changing World program in
September 2000 in partnership with the Advocacy Institute in Washington,
D.C., and the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York
University.

The goal is to recognize leaders who might not be known outside their
communities or fields, said Marian Krauskopf, program director for the Ford
Foundation.

"She's a wonderful example of the kind of leadership we think exists, the
kind of leadership that can be found in community after community across the
United States," she said of Bastien. "The foundation wanted to support the
excellent work of people like Marleine."

Bastien and the other winners will be part of ongoing research on leadership
led by the Wagner School. The winners will be talking to the researchers
about how they go about their work, and researchers hope to study the
leaders within their communities over a period of a few months.

The $100,000 given to each of the organizations over the next two years will
be a boost to Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miyami, which has an annual budget of
$400,000. The money will pay for a few part-time positions and aid in the
organization's quest to find bigger office space.

The Ford Foundation is giving Bastien another $30,000 that she plans to use
for training and development for herself and her staff.

Bastien said the honor will help in fund-raising efforts and allow her
agency to network on a national scale.

The award comes as Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miyami is battling tougher restrictions
on immigrants arising from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the continued
detention of Haitian refugees, Bastien said.

"This award comes at the right time, during an anti-immigrant climate," she
said. "We need to reach out to people."

Madeline Baró Diaz can be reached at mbaro@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5007.





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