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Communities First unequivocally believes that Black Lives Matter.

Communities First is an organization working for social and environmental justice, standing with local communities in Sub-Saharan Africa against human rights abuses and practices destroying their lands, environment, and livelihoods. We stand against oppression, violence and brutality in its many forms, whether related to race, sexual orientation, gender or culture.

We condemn policy brutality and violence in the United States in particular, and our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and the countless other people affected by this country’s long history of killing black, brown and indigenous peoples. We support significant dismantling and defunding of the police, and reallocating those resources to a wide range of much-needed community services, whether related to education, social and medical services, etc.

We further condemn all those in power who condone such violence without accountability, whether in the United States, in Belgium, or across the world where human rights, land and environmental defenders are violently repressed. We work to protect constitutional freedoms, and condemn the shutting down of peaceful protest in the United States and across the world.

We commit to the work of pursuing justice and racial equity not only abroad in the course of our technical support, but also importantly at home. Here in Maine, Lien is an active member of the Board of the Portland Food Co-op, where she chairs the Equity Committee. She also volunteers with Welcoming the Stranger, an initiative supporting asylum seekers to settle in Maine.