The new Foundation Ocan board and management, from left: Dyonna Benett (board member), Ruben Severina (chairman), Gilberto Morishaw (secretary) and Cynthia Ortega-Martijn (director).
THE HAGUE--Ruben Severina and Cynthia Ortega-Martijn, both well-known within the Dutch Caribbean community in the Netherlands, are now at the helm of Foundation Ocan.
The new board and management of the organisation for persons of Dutch Caribbean descent in the Netherlands is a mix of older, well-versed and young professionals. Severina, who has held functions in multiple organisations, and former Member of the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament Ortega-Martijn can be placed in the first category.
The young professionals, the new blood appointed to the Foundation Ocan board, are heritage expert, public speaker, curator and advisor Dyonna Benett as member and public speaker, moderator, consultant and activist Gilberto Morishaw as secretary.
Foundation Ocan announced the change of the board and management on Tuesday. Ocan Chairman John Leerdam has resigned.
“With new and energetic leadership, Foundation Ocan as a modern organisation will better anticipate opportunities and challenges for the Dutch Caribbean community in the Netherlands. Foundation Ocan commits itself to further build on the initiated and implemented projects of the past three years that were aimed at fostering closer ties with the organisation’s grassroots,” it was stated in a press release.
Severina is a well-known person within the Dutch Caribbean community. He was a teacher in Curaçao before he came to the Netherlands to work for the municipality The Hague in 1991. Since then, he has been active in various Dutch Caribbean community organisations such as MAAPP, SPLIKA, Core Group Antillean Community, HAAB, Friends of Kerwin and Centre for Immaterial Heritage. Severina has also been a member of the Municipal Council of Zoetermeer.
In daily life, Benett is an all-round heritage professional and has her own company Visible Heritage. She is a pioneer in the many-voices arts. Her thesis “The mirror of a nation: Research into the representation of identity in the Curaçao museums” was nominated for the International Council of Museums Thesis Award.
Morishaw is a John Lewis Fellow at Humanity in Action, Global Shaper at the World Economic Forum, Ambassador of the African Caribbean Pacific Young Professional Network and Climate Reality Leader at Climate Reality. He co-founded the grassroots organisation Keda Kas (Stay at Home) where young Dutch Caribbean people work on the future of the islands after the COVID-19 crisis.
Ortega-Martijn is considered a stalwart, a rock, by many in the Dutch Caribbean community. She was a member of the Second Chamber between 2006 and 2012, one of the few Dutch Caribbean persons to make it into Parliament, like former Ocan Chairman Leerdam. Ortega-Martijn is specialised in personnel management, organisation development and training.
Ortega-Martijn, who has been involved at Foundation Ocan since 2013, wants to give the foundation new élan and transfer it to the younger generation of Dutch Caribbean persons. “The time for change is now,” she said.
