EDFU Foundation participated in this years United Nation's Commission on the Status of Women 65th Session, March 15-26! The event was virtual this year, due to the pandemic, but this new format allowed many people from all over the world to attend and view the events that several organizations held. EDFU held 4 panels in collaboration with women around the world to discuss important topics and bring awareness to the issues that many women are facing. The panel discussions are still posted on our Facebook page and we invite you to visit and take a listen if you missed them when they went live.

​On February-7 we interviewed founder and CEO of Black To Nature, Michael Richardson, a platform that connects the Black Community for outdoor adventures. They also provide a platform to promote and connect businesses by the Black Community.

Also, joining us, was Dr.Katucha Bento, representing the Ylê Asé de Yansã. She told us about this indigenous black community's cause and suffering in Brazil. Please check out their website and please donate if you can . Edfu Foundation has joined with them to help bring light to their cause! You'll see our logo on their page. If you have questions or would like to learn more, please contact us!

Ms.Tonia Gray, creator of the Hartubzani Virtual Poetry Cafe,  also joined us on the show! If you're interested in performing on her online open mic, check out her site and sign up!

​Make sure to join us on Monday, February-15, at 11am PST (2pm EST) when we interview Afua Richardson and Dr. Anthony Browder for a Black History Month special! Miss. Richardson is an artist of many forms! She illustrates, writes and makes music, and is an actress. Dr. Anthony Browder is an Archeologist, Author, Publisher, Cultural Historian, Artist, and Educational Consultant. Dr. Browder is the founder of IKG Cultural Resource Center as well as the first African American to fund and coordinate an archeological dig in Egypt and has lead over 20 archeological missions to Egypt.
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To get the link to watch the show live go to our Facebook page!

​​This past Wednesday, on February 10th, Edfu Foundation's founder, Sheldon Williams, facilitated a Black History Month discussion with Dr.Joy Degruy for Coast Guard Base Alameda, District 11 and Pacific Area. Dr.Degruy's presentation was a well received eye opening, informative and cathartic experience that benefited all 100+ active duty and civilian personnel that attended.

​We welcome 2 new volunteers at the Bay Area Street Pantry this week. We passed out 98 bags of food and 1,000lbs of food. We still are in need of Volunteers and donations. If you live in the Bay Area and are able to help out, please fill out our form!

Greetings, family, friends, supporters, and those who just discovered EDFU! Throughout the last few years, EDFU has grown in many ways! Our programs have grown and we have more than ever going on now! Our friends and networks have extended beyond our little corners of the world in New York, USA; California, USA; England, UK; Geneva, Switzerland; Virginia Beach, VA - we are now reaching people and working with people from all over the world and are in direct contact with them weekly! Our staff has grown in numbers as well! Typically, it was just 1 or 2 people doing all the work -can you believe that? Now, we have several dedicated members!

With growth comes growing pains. We have definitely learned throughout our expansion and continue to open our minds to what is possible and what can be. Our internal theme this year is: Effective. We want everything we put our name on, produce, and touch to achieve its desired goals or cause. For you, our supporters and collaborators, we want to connect with you all regularly and consistently. Our news section will be updated weekly, every Friday. We invite you to come to our website every week to see what we have been up to, what we're currently working on,  how you can be involved and what we have in store!

Another way we are aiming to keep in touch with you all is through our brand new form of communication: the NEWSLETTER! When you first logged onto this website you saw a prompt pop up to join the newsletter and we invite you to do so, to keep up to date with us on a monthly bases! No need to go out of your way to read about what we have been doing, because it will be sent to your inbox on the last day of the month, every month!

There's still time to get January's newsletter as well. If you'd like a copy please leave a comment with your email address or email us at: contact@edfufoundation.org to request a copy.

Afronauts relaunched its podcast with an all new format and brand new faces! We're proud to bring you content on a more consistent basis starting this year! You can tune in to live tapings every other Sunday via Zoom; just follow the link provided by us on Facebook, Instagram or our site! We will have the video version uploaded to ourYouTube within a week of the taping, as well as an audio version on our Blogtalk station. 

We mentioned new faces! We're happy to add 2 new co-hosts: MookNeto from Chicago, IL and Pete aka Paco in NYC, NY!

We really enjoy the musical talents and editing skills that MookNeto brings and look for Paco's "What's Next With Paco" every episode! You can watch our current episode here and we'd love to hear your feedback and what you would like to see on the show!

Our next show will be taped live via Zoom this Sunday, February-7, at 11:00am PST (2:00pm EST). Our guests will be: Michael Richards, Katucha Bento, and Tonia Thomas.

EDFU announced it's partnership and launched a campaign with the Ylê Asé de Yansã from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Our goal is to help them raise $37,000 to build new infrastructures to help heal their people physically and spiritually, while educating their youth and providing shelter. Their current building is collapsing and severly damaged. They have no help from the government and no resources. We invite you to learn about them here and to donate to the cause on JustGiving. Please, reach out to us if you would like to learn more or have information on more resources we can use! Land rights are now!

​We will also be featuring Katucha Bento, our liaison to the Ylê Asé de Yansã on Afronuats this Sunday, February 7, during our live taping of Afronauts.

Our Bay Area Street Pantry program that feeds the hungry in Oakland, CA, USA continues to go strong! We operate every Tuesday, handing out bags of groceries from 11:30am-1:00pm PST at the Melrose Branch of the Oakland Public Library. We average 106 bags of groceries every week with over 1,000lbs of food being given away!

However, we are in need of volunteers! If you are able to handout food or be a driver to transport food on Tuesdays, please reach out to us! Donations are also appreciated! With your donations we were able to give away 40 turkeys for Thanksgiving last year and provide children with toys for Christmas!

Once again, we thank everyone for your support and sticking with us over the years! We have so many great things to bring to you in 2021 and we look forward to what is going to be a good and effective year!

Edfu Foundation attended the "Commission on the Status of Women" (CSW) at the United Nations for the 64th session. Due to COVID-19, the attendance and participation was extremely low as compared to previous years. Prior to the event the United Nations had asked anyone not already in North America to please not journey to NYC, NY, USA for their own safety and others. They cancelled all official parallel events and any other scheduled meetings with the exception of the first day.

On Monday - March 9, 2020, CSW64 was held with it's opening ceremony, opening remarks, and the declaration was passed. All other scheduled gatherings were cancelled.

Unfortunately, because our Black Women In Stem/Steam panel and our Women in the Role of Sustainability & Disaster Management through Community Resilience event were both parallel events for CSW64, they were cancelled. However, we were able to still present our Ambassador's Breakfast. We hope to reschedule our cancelled events in the future once it is safe to do so.

EDFU attended the 12th Session at the United Nations office in Geneva, Switzerland from July 15-20, 2019. The following is the statement presented to the UN.

Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Twelfth Session
15-19 July 2019
Item 9: Future work of the Expert Mechanism, including focus of future thematic study.
Statement of Edfu Foundation an indigenous people’s organization.
Delivered by Sheldon Williams, Managing Director of Edfu Foundation and a member of the Yamasee tribe.​
Mr. Chairman,

• We are appreciative for the work of the Human Rights Council the Permanent Forum and the EMRIP. As the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states: “Recognizing that the situation of indigenous peoples varies from region to region and from country to country and that the significance of national and regional particularities and various historical and cultural backgrounds should be taken into consideration.” Edfu Foundation recommends any studies on The Right to land or Self Determination should include sections on Recognition, Reparation and Reconciliation  and there connection to health; with a particular focus on the over 100 million descendents of indigenous Africans in the Americas displaced due to forced migration and kidnapping. This topic is long due to be discussed. Especially in this the decade of people of African descent and the year of return; the 400 years since the beginning of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade. When indigenous Africans were kidnapped and forcibly migrated to the Americas as well as Europe. which incidentally also lead to the enslavement of indigenous Americans and theft of numerous indigenous lands.

Edfu Foundation utilizes science and the teachings of our ancestors for the betterment of humanity. Science confirms all humans come from Africa and all humans have melanin in varying degrees meaning all humans are brown.  The term African American will be used to clearly distinguish who I am referring to and not a classification. We at Edfu Foundation firmly stand on the tenant that there is only one human race. Therefore, Edfu Foundation firmly supports the UN Agenda 2030; especially the theme of “No one left behind.”
There are over 100 million people of African descent in the Americas; of these people a significant portion of them identify as indigenous peoples. With varying languages and traditions, they have retained social, cultural, economic and political characteristics that are distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live and have done so despite the kidnapping, forced migration, forced assimilation and violence started by the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and through systematic inequalities  and structural violence which continue to the present.
Since the Doctrine of Discovery, the global economy has benefited from indigenous resources sacred items and labor. The enlightenment of the colonizing states and whatever impetus or circumstances that brought an end to the transatlantic slave trade and subsequent release of those kidnapped and displaced indigenous peoples did not correct this crime against humanity. It morphed it into a more sophisticated system of inequality and structural violence. Which allowed the dominant society to continue to benefit while not compensating the victims of this crime against humanity.  More must be done to make the victims whole. because the decedents of those kidnapped, displaced and violated indigenous peoples still reel from the effects of this crime against humanity centuries later. Just as the global economy still benefits from their resources, sacred and labor.

Currently there are a growing number of these descendents indigenous Africans displaced in the Americas calling for Reparations for their ancestors, with which Edfu Foundation agrees. Bills such as HR40 in the United States of America and the work of organizations like The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) are doing great work. Yet internationally more needs to be done; The Human Rights Council, the Permanent Forum, EMRIP and other United Nations bodies need to weigh in on this issue and this study is a start.   However, any study should not focus on reparations alone. We also need to focus on recognition and reconciliation of the over 100 million forcibly migrated descendents of indigenous Africans in the Americas as well. Studies have shown that the effects of trauma can reverberate down the generations through epigenetics.
Speaking as an indigenous person of Native American as well as a descendent of indigenous Africans forcibly migrated to the Americas I am well aware of how this continued pattern of structural violence and systemic terror, xenophobia, genocide, and forced assimilation results in intergenerational trauma, and Post Traumatic Stress. This intergenerational trauma along with structural violence is a serious public health issue that affects all people and needs to be addressed, given greater attention and finally resolved.
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Intergenerational trauma is the transmission of historical oppression and its negative consequences across generations. Centuries of genocide, forced enslavement, and assimilation followed by systemic and structural violence, racism and oppression have resulted in intergenerational maladaptive behaviors, which originated as survival strategies. {However, the syndrome continues because children whose parents suffer from intergenerational trauma are often indoctrinated into the same behaviors, long after the behaviors have lost their contextual effectiveness.}
 Intergenerational trauma and structural violence is a major public health issue and as such should be included in any study dealing with indigenous peoples. In order to truly bring about reconciliation and make communities whole we need to address these issues in a wholistic manner. First recognizing that mental health issues are growing at an alarming rate. The study should note that Indigenous peoples’ conceptualization of “health” and wellbeing is generally broader and more holistic than that of mainstream society, with health frequently viewed by indigenous peoples as both an individual and collective right, strongly determined by community, land and the natural environment. The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues has noted that the right to health “materializes through the well-being of an individual as well as the social, emotional, spiritual and cultural well-being of the whole community” (E/C.19/2013/L.2, para 3). Indigenous concepts of health often incorporate spiritual, emotional, cultural and social dimensions in addition to physical health which often times clash with the dominant society. However by addressing this issue in a holistic manner, with input from indigenous people  we can all forge a clearer path to the desired goal of Recognition, reparation and reconciliation.
 
Thank you