Youth for the Future marks first birthday
With its headquarters spread along a once controversial piece of real estate surrounding the opposition party’s headquarters, it’s difficult for Youth for the Future to do anything quietly. But quiet progress is exactly what the initiative’s leaders say it has accomplished over the last twelve months. News 5’s Patrick Jones reports from the foot of the Bel-China Bridge.
Patrick Jones, Reporting
Twelve months after it was established to coordinate the activities of Belize’s young people, the Youth for the Future Secretariat today celebrated the organisation’s first anniversary. With their focus on the way forward, the leaders of Youth for the Future and the Mexican State of Quintana Roo’s Family Development Agency inked a five-point agreement for closer cooperation. President of El Sistema Para el Desarollo de la Familia, Leslie Hendricks, says it is important to keep young people at the centre of any development strategy.
Leslie Hendricks Rubio, President, D.I.F.
“We are signing this agreement because we think it is important because Belize and Quintana Roo, we are like neighbours and we have like very common things. So we have to, we can work together and as I said before it is important to have this work for the youths. And in the case of Quintana Roo and Belize being so close, it’s a need to have this kind of agreements, not only for the youths, maybe also for the children and the elders.”
It is this holistic approach says Executive Director Nuri Mohammad that has kept Youth for the Future on track over the past year.
Nuri Mohammad, Executive Director, Y.F.F.
“As it relates to young people, I do believe that Youth for the Future has been very innovative. We have been extremely bold and proactive in getting the dialogue going with that sector that normally was not being paid attention to except, by the police, by the court, by the prison system. The C.Y.D.P. that had existed prior had been disbanded, and so for quite some time those youths had no one intervening in that area until Youth for the Future came on board.”
Among the accomplishments of the organisation, the establishment of a National Youth Council, a Youth Enterprise Unit that has helped over forty-five young people to get started in business and the setting up of a conflict resolution unit, which Muhammad says, has been successful in diffusing a lot of volatile situations.
Nuri Muhammad
“We try not to make a lot of noise about this because that’s a very vulnerable area, and we don’t want to point fingers and bring rude boy front of camera to show that this is going on and that is going just so that somebody can jump up later and say isn’t that the same boy we saw weh seh he change this week and next week he just…so we try to stay away. It’s not about camera work, it’s about trying to intervene in this area and create changes.”
But while those changes are cause for celebration, there are still doubts over whether the message is really getting through to those who need it most.
Nuri Muhammad
“I think the way in which we are defining the crime problem in Belize has to change. We tend to look at the crime issue as just the incidents that come up in the news, when in reality the problem of crime is a much broader problem. It involves all of us. It involves the community understanding its responsibility rather than just running after programmes to solve the problem. To answer your question directly, yes, I think that our message is getting across because we are dealing directly with some of those youths on the streets that normally get involved in violence and we can see a difference in what we are distinctly doing.”
And lest anyone think we are flying solo, Hendricks says many of the problems that our young people face are not unique to Belize.
Leslie Hendricks Rubio
“The young people have very similar problems, like the identity. You know it’s the time when we don’t know what to do, but we want to do a lot. So it is important to, helping them, orienting them, so that’s what we’re doing.”
“In Mexico we have many programmes for young people and this is because we think, we are convinced that the harder we work for the young people, we are ensuring our future, we are ensuring to have better leaders and better representatives for the people.”
Although the anniversary celebration was low-key, officials at Youth for the Future say it in no way indicates that the programme is running out of steam. Patrick Jones, for News 5.
All of the government’s youth agencies and related departments have been placed under the Y.F.F. umbrella.
