And from investing in projects to investing in people...
The Building People Movement is hosting a series of workshops over the next ten months on educating the workforce to become advocates for change regarding gender based violence. The first workshop began on Thursday and here's what we gathered from the session:
Dorla Bowman, Founder, Building People Movement
"Building people movement has a lot to do with its name the people who are involved as staff and as members. Our mission is to build people because we realized some time ago that not enough resources is spent on building people. As a community locally and world wide we prefer to invest in things that are important but not as important as building people like bridges and big buildings. Many times we need to give people the skills and the appropriate technology that they need for their personal development and we look at personal development issues which many times is not looked at. So it is not only education but it is also what is the content of the education. What skills we are developing what type of education we are imparting to people will help them to build them and to build their families and communities and have a better life."
Jamie Rocke, Moderator & Panelist
"So today the panel, the training is about gender based violence and how we can be advocates in our communities in different spaces. So the topics are going to focus on what's gender, what is gender based violence specifically in Belize and the dynamics that foster these kinds of situations and these social ills that plague our society. So we are going to look at how we can build consciousness and of course pick out tools and resources that can help to amplify our voices in certain spaces to advocate against these kind of social ills that are affecting us."
"UNIFEM reported that one in three women are impacted by domestic violence and gender based violence so it's a very close to home issue so it is important that when you educate the workforce the workforce are mothers the work force includes fathers and daughters and everyone so that's the reason why there is such a wide cross section of participants so I think that quite important because it's an everybody issue."
SSB Celebrates 43
Today the Social Security Board celebrated 43 years with an Open Day/Wellness Fair at each of their branches. The booths all had games and prizes, along with health checks, and an opportunity to open our virtual SSB portal. The Communications Manager told us more.
A Halting Hello To Hurricane Season
And, finally tonight, we note with foreboding the commencement of the 2024 hurricane season for the Atlantic Basin, The 2024 forecast predicts 17 to 25 named storms - which is above average. Of those, eight to 13 are expected to become hurricanes, and four to seven are expected to become major hurricanes.
A release from the MET service says, quote, "one or more of the 17 to 25 named storms forecast to develop this season could hit the country, or none at all."
Once More, The Golden Showcase
And that's 7news for this Friday night - thanks for watching, I am Jomarie Lanza…
We leave you again tonight with high lites for the Festival of the Arts Golden Showcase with more highlights of the top high school performance
Enjoy and join us back here on Monday at the same time...
