Today, 40 women completed a 10-day training program that taught them life and entrepreneurial skills. These women are from the Freetown Division, a bustling constituency filled with businesses both large and small. And the participants were single mothers who can now take this knowledge and turn it into profit in the busiest area of the city. The area rep, Francis Fonseca, told us more today.
Francis Fonseca, Area Rep, Freetown
"We were very happy to be able to partner with the Taiwan ICDF mission here in Belize to carry out this training. It's part of a bigger project that the Taiwanese are promoting, it's called Women Empowerment, a big women empowerment project and this was specifically aimed at equipping single mothers in the Freetown constituency with basic lifeskills, self care, but also equipping them with the capacity to not only find employment but create employment for themselves, so those were the two basic objectives. So everyday there was a different topic, they focused on interviewing skills, even basic things like how you dress for an interview, how you prepare for an interview, but they also taught them basic skills about accounting, basic accounting processes, opening a bank account, the importance of saving, the importance of balancing your book when you're running a small business, many of these women here who participated in this workshop are all business entrepreneurs, they have very small businesses, they wanted to find way to make those businesses more efficient, so that's what this was all about."
"I'm very proud to say that over the past 20 years that I have been the representative, and I'd like to believe that I've contributed to that, it's become the fastest growing, most developed constituency in Belize City. All the major businesses want to operate in Freetown. Of course the Belama community is one of the most attractive residential communities and so businesses are naturally attracted there because you have a captive population of people so I think this workshop will certainly help these women."
And one of the participants, who currently works at NICH, told us that a lot more doors have been opened for her because of this training.
Monique Gomez, Security Guard, NICH
"I learned a lot of different things and it will help me because like when I'm at work I get upset, I get, you know, I get tantalized and this program taught me how work with all of that, just to not pay it any mind, instead of giving an attitude, say, yes I like it, you have a good day."
Reporter:
"Anger management."
Monique Gomez, Security Guard, NICH
"Yes."
Courtney Menzies:
"And did you pick up anything, maybe one of these days you'd want to own your own business, anything from the entrepreneurship program?"
Monique Gomez, Security Guard, NICH
"Yes ma'am, if I were to open any business it would be sales stuff because I get stuff to sell from the US and whatnot and I learned a lot because like what Mr Man said, with that line of work, you have to budget, and I learned how to budget and all that stuff. I learned different things about nails, I didn't know all of that you have to do with nails, and all the acrylics and stuff to do the nails."
Reporter:
"So you'd recommend this to other..."
Monique Gomez, Security Guard, NICH
"Yes, I would recommend other females to come, it's a wonderful program, I wish they'd have a next one next week."
