And from one defense sector to another, the BDF at Price Barracks in Ladyville, in light of women's month, held a "Women, Peace, and Security" Symposium this morning. Jomarie Lanza stopped by and here's what she learned at the event.
The symposium was held under the theme "inspiring inclusion" and it aimed to foster support and provide safe spaces for women soldiers to receive the same treatment and opportunities as their male counterparts. Brigadier general Azariel Loria told us more:
Brig. Gen. Azariel Loria, Commander, BDF
"We celebrating women's month the month of March is recognized worldwide I believe as women's month and women's day being 8 March, so hence the reason why we came up with the idea being that we are trying to catch up the woman, peace and security agenda that was derived after, and the militaries around
the world, most countries of the world trying to make the woman more inclusive into an integrated even more into the work environment. as you know, the military is not something normal. We may be required to conduct combat roles from time to time and we have to ensure that the women can also contribute towards those roles towards the defense and the security of our nation."
"Here in the Belize Defence Force it starts creating the vision of what we want for our women our service women it starts at the top even from the Prime Minister's office trickles down to the ministry of defense and I am responsible to implement such a policy and directive in my case and surely that is the case and hence the reason why this is the second year in a row that we are conducting the symposium, and we will not stop we will continue to communicate. This sort of symposium are strategic to ensure the last soldier at the observation post, or the operating base somewhere in our nation gets it."
We got to meet one of those remarkable women who worked her way up through the ranks and is the first female to hold the title of Lieutenant Colonel in Belize.
Lt Col Lydia Guerra, Force Medical Officer BDF
"In my case I initially started off as an officer cadet, just as an any other officer would be getting the force I was privileged to obtain a scholarship to study at the Mexican military Academy, which brought its own challenges in terms of being a dual education program, both military and medicine, so I was the first one to graduate from that Academy for Belize, so being a cadet there on a whole has its challenges in terms of being in a male dominated environment as well. We also had to do just as all the men did there and meet our educational goals and expectations upon arrival back Home. It had similar challenges being a part of the Belize defense force in terms of garnering that respect from our subordinates, arriving here I was commissioned to an officer, and subsequently moved up to the rank of captain, that had been traditionally down for other doctors, who had joined the force. so definitely on that role of being senior leadership among the women and having to be an advocate for them especially when we were at leadership meetings the different struggles that women in the force have and being an advocate for them and trying to bring about change."
