Executive president of Integrare, Maria Hyeronides Barros DeLima, was also present, and represented Brazil as a signatory on the document. She said, "This partnership will allow Brazilian business entrepreneurs to shake hands with Americans who are way ahead and have so much to teach. Brazilians will also have a chance to enter the walls of the corporate world in Brazil and to do business globally. This is a victory for CBCF, Integrare, the Black community and natives and disabled entrepreneurs. It is definitely a global victory!"
An effervescent Dr. Claire Nelson, the ICS founder and president, beams with excitement about this year's honoree line-up that underlines the Caribbean excellence that helps build the United States and the wider world. Of Greenbelt, Maryland-based engineer [Robert Rashford]'s "one-of-a-kind inventions" for the NASA space program, Nelson bubbles: "Most of us dream about space... but he is working on equipment that is sent up on the Space Shuttle." Fae Ellington an enduring actress and radio, television and comedy personality in Jamaica, is hosting the evening's affair, which returns to the JW Marriott Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C. Among the other Caribbean celebrities on the program-Washington's WJLA-TV news anchor Maureen Bunyan and New York-based Jamaican author Colin Channer. The latter's novel, "Waiting in Vain," copped the Washington Post's 1998 Critic's Choice award. The Institute of Caribbean Studies is a non-partisan, non-profit organization established in 1993, with a mission to conduct research, policy analysis and education focussed on issues that impact the Caribbean diaspora in the United States. ICS works with scholars, the private sector, NGO community, and US and Caribbean public sector- and other interests to promote dialogue on Caribbean issues. The ICS is at present operated by an all-volunteer staff.
A trade accord spearheaded by the NAACP worth $1.5 billion between the Cuban government and black farmers was heralded on Nov 17, 2002 by the Rev Al Sampson, who called the accord an "international window of opportunity" for African Americans. Sampson, who works with African American farmers, said this agreement gives black farmers an "international window" through Cuba into the Caribbean.
