While the domestic disputes we hear about are usually between adults – somewhere caught up in the mix of all that are young adults. If it happens in the home, it happens to them and today the Women’s Department held a session to tell these teenagers how to navigate these difficult situations.
Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
That scene may put a smile on your face but what you just watched is nothing to laugh about. The Women’s Department says it’s real and it is happening in many Belizean homes.
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There are many different forms of abuse as played out by these young men and women but the students are learning that no matter how difficult the issue they can avoid conflicts that can lead to physical and violent confrontations. The exercise is part of the highs school’s counseling and life skills programme that basically teaches the students how to be decisive and successfully negotiate problematic situations whether at home, at school or in any relationship.
Abdul Nunez, School guidance counselor – Excelsior
“Well a lot of them come with pre-conceived notions, pre-conceived ideas, some of them come from a culture within the home and we are trying to break that cycle so that they learn to be assertive and to make their own decisions and to be individuals. So that is the reason why this workshop is going to be very helpful and a part of that process.”
The workshop is also being coordinated by the Department of Women’s Affairs that this week is focusing on empowering women through the accomplishments of their peers.
Tricia Collins, Belize City Officer – Women’s Department
“I expect the students will leave here knowing ways to counteract different violent situations, how to speak to each other at schools, because many times a lot of the fights are because of aggression, they don’t sit down and take the time to say if I step away what would happen or seek the help of a teacher or seek the help of a counselor - they would just take the matter into their own hands and deal with it.”
Abdul Nunez,
“So this is the reason we are trying to teach the values, being able to negotiate, to look at themselves, to become more self-aware so that when they leave this institution and in their everyday life – because we have like some of them, and this happens with most young people because they have to survive outside of school – they tend to not be able to differentiate where they are. So we are trying to let them learn that listen, it is required for you to behave a certain way in school, when you are on the street you are expected to behave a certain way, but you need to find the middle ground and find yourselves so that in any environment you find yourself, you will be able to function.”
But it is a change that the school’s guidance counselor Abdul Nunez does not expect to see quickly in his students. He sometimes it takes a lot of effort to step back from any given situation but there must be a start and what they are doing in the classroom will be helpful in the process.
Abdul Nunez,
“Well we know for sure it won’t be an overnight thing and as we are going along, it is learning for both the students and the teachers themselves because we learn from these students as well. It is about forming a relationship, a relationship between the teachers and the students so that they can learn from us and we learn from them.”
Fifteen year olds Tiffara Grant and Frank Foster are inspired and committed to the cause. The first form students hope to use the skill to help their peers who may be at risk.
Tiffara Grant, 15 year old student
“It is to make young people really and truly change their lives and to make we young people know what really is going on in society because most young men make males take advantage of them because they don’t know their rights.”
Frank Foster, 15 year old Student
“I see it affecting Belize because I think we should start to make the change from now because if they don’t start now, they will never start.”
Women’s Week continues tomorrow with a makeover of the Kolbe Foundation and other activities.
