Garifuna American Heritage Foundation United

Garifuna American Heritage Foundation United is dedicated to preserving the uniqueness of the Garifuna culture, history, language, music, arts & crafts, and spirituality by working closely with the Garifuna community Los Angeles County and throughout the world.  They seek to enhance and showcase the image and vision of the Garifuna people through education, music, and the arts.  And last but not least, our endeavor also includes to be able to properly channel the music, dance and the arts to the world.  There is a strong, talented and artistically inclined group of Garifuna artists who are the lifeline of the Garifuna culture.  This talent is in danger of being lost if not preserved and/or exposed properly.

The Garifuna - an indigenous people of the Caribbean - come from St. Vincent, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize.  Their language, an Arawak-based language, has been recognized by UNESCO as one of the world's endangered cultural assets.

The Garifuna American Heritage Foundation United received a grant from ACTA's Living Cultures Grants Program in 2009 and 2010 to support their Garifuna Language and Culture School, an educational program that seeks to preserve and disseminate Garifuna culture and language in Southern California.  Classes are held throughout the year for both children and adults; youth classes incorporate music, dance, and drumming into the curriculum.