At-risk Youths to Participate in Retreat on Fatherhood

A group of thirty young men, many of whom are from gang-ridden communities in Belize City, will be participating in a three-day retreat at Machaca Outreach in Toledo this weekend. A collaboration between the Department of Youth Services, the Leadership Intervention Unit and the Band of Brothers, the initiative is geared towards helping these individuals to navigate fatherhood, as many of them may have grown up without a father figure in their lives.

Kevin Cadle

Kevin Cadle, Director, Department of Youth Services

“We have completed a family needs assessment and out of that family needs assessment, one of the strongest points, along with the University of Belize, that we recognize is the issue of matrifocality.  Matrifocality is whereby women are running the homes and that men have not been there and we keep seeing a situation whereby children are growing up without fathers and we have decided to take a major step in ensuring that we try to bridge that gap to bring our men at the forefront to be fathers.  And therefore, as a result of that, we have teamed up with the Band of Brothers from Texas to be able to provide the type of services that we need to create fatherhood and to allow for our men to step up to the plate and become fathers.”

Isani Cayetano

“Now I see these young men will take a trip down to Machaca. Talk to us about that and what that intends to achieve in terms of having these young men together.”

Kevin Cadle

“Well one of the most important thing is the whole issue of culturalization, to be able to have them come together and to be able to teach them about themselves, and to let them recognize the fact that, you know what, you came from a father, you came from a mother and you are raring children in our society and, therefore, it is important for you to also step up to the plate and be a father.  At the same token you need to recognize that spirituality and religion, no matter what people say, plays a great role.  We need to recognize that there’s a higher power and we want to give them that opportunity to recognize that and to be able to be fathers and to be able to bring that level of spirituality to the whole concept of their culturalization of their children.”