For the past two nights, the news has been all about gun violence in Belize City population of young men. well that's also what's being discussed at a workshop sponsored by UNICEF at the House of Culture. It's a youth leadership workshop and organizers hope to combine perspectives from across the country to figure out how to get the message of non violence out from the grassroots, community level. Marleni Cuellar is the coordinator.
Marleni Cuellar, UNICEF
"We're trying to create a culture of non-violence within the Caribbean. How we're trying to do that is to be able to bring together young people to create this change. The motto is it begins with you and our theme for the exchange in Belize is exchanging fears for dreams and your dreams for reality. We want to be able to empower, educate, and develop the skills of young people to be able to realize their own capacity for participation and for creating this change within Belize, within their own homes, within their schools, or their communities.
We're being realistic, we don't come with answers saying at the end of the week you will go out and the whole world will change or Belize will be non-violent. We are not saying that at all. But there is a huge need for participation and more so positive involvement for young people. So if we could just inspire these young people to know, through sharing of their good experiences, developing their skills, they can be able to feel that they can go out there and do whatever it is they have within their capacity to do.
We have planned it out in a strategic manner. We have covered things like trying to build their own team spirit, understanding self, and things like that. We have a facilitator here from Trinidad who is helping us with that. We also look at things like conflict resolution. This morning we had Michael Rosberg who did the study on crime and violence delivering a presentation on crime and violence in Belize and the effect it has on children and adolescents. We are also covering things like life skills, culture is a huge part of it as well, and HIV/Aids is another problem in Belize. But then we move from that to what could be our solutions, or possible solutions, lateron."
