Author says new approach needed for youth

Over the years numerous initiatives have been taken to diagnose the root causes of crime and produce solutions to solve the problem. But tonight, one local author claims that he’s spent the last eight years, not to mention more than a hundred thousand dollars, conducting scientific research on Belize’s youth and, guess what, his study says just about everything we’ve been doing is wrong. That’s the verdict of Stephen Okeke and following the launch of his latest publication, “Understanding the Problems of Belizean Youths, Positive Insights”, you can decide whether you agree with him or not.

Stephen Okeke, Author
?My research has shown that one of the main problems is that extensively most of the youth organisations, if not all of them, trying to help the youth are solving a problem that is not there. So the actual problem is left to itself to grow complex and to grow tentacles. And one of the main problems with the young people of Belize is that their problem is not as bad as it is seen to be. Most of the problems are ideological, not because the young people are bad in themselves. On the other hand, the demand put on the youth is just too much; you could say the solutions applied in effort to help the young people is destroying them. The demands on the young people are just too much, given their resources at their disposal and their predisposition. But you can say confidently that based on my findings over the past eight years that a lot of young people in Belize want to change.?

Okeke’s official book launch will be held at the Radisson Fort George Hotel Wednesday at six pm. Okeke told News 5 that this book is his “parting shot”, meaning he is planning to go back to his art studio full-time. As for how they spent that more than a hundred thousand dollars, Okeke told us he disbursed a number of loans to his research subjects and then monitored how they handled the money in their respective business ventures.