The Social Security Board's initiative, Empowering You, has been ongoing since 2021, and has impacted the lives of over 100 Belizeans. It's a program in various districts and municipalities across the country that seeks to teach women and men life skills such as barbering, nail work, and massage therapy.
On Friday, the Corporate Relations Officer told us more about the program as they prepared to see the graduation of 50 participants in the cayes.
Mowava Fuller, Corporate Relations Officer, SSB
"So just to give you a bit of a brief historical perspective on empowering you, we started in 2021 and it was a part of the initiative for our 48th anniversary and it was an overwhelming success. We launched it in 2021 because that was at the height of COVID and we saw the impact in the community and the way how persons were really just losing the little hope that they had because they were losing their employment so we launched empowering you with that foresight to re-inspire, to reinvigorate lives and to change the narratives for some of these Belizeans it was an overwhelming success and we know we couldn't just let go of empowering you so we continued on that path in 2022 and now in January 2023 we are graduating our first cohort in Caye Caulker this evening and we are graduating 50 individuals from the Caye Caulker area and from the San Pedro area. [00:01:34.01] so these 50 individuals will be receiving official certification for their skills training in three areas, those include nail technology, they're also getting certificates for barbering and also for massage therapy."
"The facilitators for the training come from the YWCA so we provide the trainings in facilitation in collaboration with the Y. They tailor their courses for us to create one week skills intensive courses so the participants get that hands on intensive nature of the course so that they can get the most out of that experience in that five full business days."
Mariela Coc, Participant
"For me, I've been massage, I've been practicing massage for seven years now and I'm seeing this as a refresher course but also to encourage my daughter to learn different skills so as to equip her so that wherever she goes she can help herself and I find this training very worthwhile because these days jobs are hard to find so if you have your own skills you can create your own job."
"Right now, I am looking to get a space here, I am actually in negotiation with someone so we have yet to see what's the result and once we get our place, we should be moving back to Caye Caulker. I'll be doing massage and she'll be doing the nail and barbering."
Saida Reyes, Participant
"I can say that I enjoyed this week, for me it was a bit short, but I actually learnt a lot, I have been doing this with my sisters at home but I guess I can go further to teaching others about this program and I just enjoyed it, it has been a great experience, I think our teachers have done a great job having patience with us and teaching us the right way because I knew every step but not exactly like starting from number 1 so I think they had a lot of patience showing us the right way to do manicure and pedicure."
