FANM Executive Director Marleine Bastien Receives the Lifetime Achievement Award October 16, 2015
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has unanimously chosen Marleine Bastien to be awarded the "Lifetime Achievement Award". As Charles Fischer, Board Member of the Miami-Dade Chapter of the ACLU expressed, this award is "for the body of activism you've accomplished representing the rights of women, Haitian-Americans, people affected with HIV/AIDS, and all the other communities which have benefited from your work.|" Two days after arriving in the U.S. in 1981, Marleine Bastien started volunteering at the Haitian Refugee Center. She was then trained and hired as a paralegal a few months later to assist Haitian Refugees who were coming in by the thousands and being detained at the Krome Detention Center. Marleine's experience at the Krome Detention Center marked the beginning of years of social services, advocacy and organizing on behalf of Haitian immigrants in South Florida. After leaving the Haitian Refugee Center, Marleine spent 13 years at Ja