This morning, 5 Belizeans completed a special training court in cake decorating, which was organized by the YWCA and the Belize Social Security Board.
Now, there's no big news in that - cake decorating is pretty basic - but what's interesting it's an initiative to to provide 40 Belizeans, who became unemployed due to COVID, with new income earning skills.
5 of those Belizeans completed their 1-week course today and we visited to find out how this program is positively impacting the lives of these workers who suddenly lost their jobs last year. 7News attended and Daniel Ortiz has that story:
These 5 students of the cake decorating course are among a group of 40 Belizeans countrywide to whom the YWCA and the Social Security Board have offered a helping hand. They lost their jobs last year when the COVID-19 pandemic hit:
Natalie Palacio Pook - Participant
"In 2018, as a certified paralegal with over 15 years of experience, I decided to shift careers and explored working in the tourism industry. I was an operations manager in Pandora, an international jewellery franchise operating in the FSTV cruise port in Belize City."
"You can all imagine my dilemma when COVID hit, and as of March last year, cruise tourism came to a halting close. It was immediately and indefinitely closed. Both my husband and I worked in cruise tourism, so our entire family was affected by it."
"Just like that, in the blink of an eye, a family and household of 7 were left without a sustainable source of income. I have always been a resilient person. I don't sit around and be a victim of circumstances, so, I pulled together my applications and resumes and I sent them out, and job after job, I thought I should get a job quickly. I'm qualified. Not so, job after job I applied for, I didn't even get an interview."
"It felt like there was nowhere to turn, nobody to turn to because everybody was going through their own problems. So, my husband and I made a conscious decision to work on our small business."
"So, we got started late last year, and when I saw this notice from the Belize Social Security, Empowering 40."
"I knew it was a call to action. I had always wanted to learn about cake decorating."
So, Pook and her 4 fellow graduates took on the training, which was organized by SSB and the YWCA. These two organizers have established small sessions for alternative skilled labor that might be in demand in the labor market.
Chandra Nisbet Cansino - General Manager, Corp. Customer Relation Services, SSB
"The courses that were offered to the participants including sewing, barbering, food preparation - which includes catering and cake decorating. And so, those 4 courses were offered to the participants across the country. The courses were given at the respective branches."
"The purpose was primarily to empower persons who, perhaps, were used to being employed. A lot of us are employed persons, and we realized during the COVID-19 pandemic when we became unemployed that we did not have a skill perhaps to maybe facilitate or sustain ourselves during unemployment. So, that was the goal, to empower persons to be able to have a skill that they would be able to use to take them across this rough patch, perhaps, to become employed once again, or to perhaps continue on the path to empowerment, and self-employment."
Today's participants say that the training opportunity has opened them to new opportunities:
Natalie Palacio Pook
"I was able to meet very nice and new people, who like myself, have stories to tell, stories which resonate strongly amongst us. We're able to see that although the path may have seemed dark, we are not alone. Others are on the same path, struggling along, and they don't give up. So, why should you? I am grateful to the Belize Social Security Board and to the YWCA for having the vision and the foresight to organize and implement a project such as this one."
Shane Juarez - Participant
"I know for a fact that we all learned a lot, and for this, we are extremely grateful."
