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According to Wikipedia, “umjoa” is the Swahili word for “unity.” Locally, Umoja Group, Inc. is an educational, cultural, charitable, and service organization that initiates and supports activities that promote the positive history, arts and culture of Africans, African-Americans and Caribbeans. The group then shares this rich heritage with others to enhance respect, cooperation and unity. The Umoja Group, Inc. presents the 26th annual Umoja Festival this Saturday, Aug. 25, from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. at Seabrook Park.“The purpose of the event is to have a cultural festival to honor our own in our community, and it is for us and by us,” said Cassandra Standifer, board of directors of the Umoja Festival. “We keep it in our neighborhood so that walkers can have a location that is easily accessible to them because a lot of people don’t get the opportunity to branch out.”
The event features a health fair,Total Collaboration Band, drummers,Tokay Rockers, a rock-climbing wall and bouncy house, food, arts and craft vendors, Chrome Knights Motorcycle Club and Antique Cars, E. E. Smith High School marching band, storytellers and the movie “Black Panther.”
“Our health fair is one of the largest ones in the state of North Carolina, and Darvin Jones is the overseer
of the health fair,” Standifer said. “He gets the different organizations that participate with that. We offer free immunizations for school-aged children and free school physicals for children – we have that readily available for parents to take advantage of.”
There are also services for adults. “We offer EKGs, blood sugar testing, blood pressure screening, hand CPR, grip strength tests and booths that offer information about nutrition, diet and breast cancer,” said Standifer. “The year before last, we had a woman who had her blood pressure checked, and it was so high they had to take her to the hospital.
“It was good she came in to have it checked because it could have been a totally different outcome than it was that day.”
Standifer added that a lot of people are under stress these days and they are having headaches and other kinds of symptoms that they brush off. The health fair gives people an opportunity to get an idea of how they are actually doing.
The festival features an arts component designed especially for the children. “My daughter just graduated from Winston-Salem State University, and she will be selling some of her art pieces,” said Standifer. “She will do art projects with the children on the inside. We are trying to branch out and make it a little more fun for everybody.”
“I would like for everyone that has been to one of our festivals and enjoyed it to come on out and join us again,” said Standifer. “We welcome the whole community to come and take advantage of this educational experience.”
The health fair ends at 2 p.m., but the other Umoja Festival activities continue at Seabrook Park until 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Donations are welcome. For more information, call 910-485-8035 or email umojagroupfay@gmail.com.