Belizean Jesuit volunteers prepare for service
It hasn’t received a lot of publicity but a program organized by the Catholic Church is quietly making a difference for the nation and a small but dedicated group of volunteers. This morning I paid them a visit.
The program, which got underway almost three years ago, recruits young men and women to serve as Jesuit volunteers in Belize. This year, eleven people between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one, have been invited to serve in a number of capacities across the country. According to Sister Carolee Chanona, the program’s director, Jesuit Volunteers Belize was established to create an opportunity for young persons to serve the needs of the community.
Sister Carolee Chanona, Director, J.V.B.
“I’ve really been touched and moved to see how many young people… One of their main reasons for volunteering is that they want to make a difference, especially in the lives of young people. Especially in the lives of people who are poor and are marginalized in anyway and so the vision is that we, the Belizeans are capable, are generous, are willing, and to give a year of our lives to helping people who are in need.”
Sister Carolee, who is also in charge of the program’s recruitment, says most of their volunteers come from secondary and tertiary level institutions.
Sister Carolee Chanona
“We just ask to speak to the student body as such and we talk about the vision, we talk about the mission and it has really been interesting to see the response that we get. People’s eyes light up and it’s like, sit up and take notice.”
The volunteers must not only show an interest in working with the program, but there are four values that the young men and women must live by. They include forming and building community, living simply, practicing justice and deepening faith and spirituality. One volunteer who will be entering the program for the second time is twenty year old Jesus Esquivel. In 1997, Esquivel was placed as a teacher at St. Peter Claver Primary School in Punta Gorda.
Jesus Esquivel, J.V.B., St. Peter Claver School
“I taught Spanish, work at the parish and also I did the physical aspect, physical education aspect of the school. It was challenging, difficult in the sense that it was my first time that I experienced life, a different perspective other than a student because all the while I was being a student and then now, I come out from sixth form and I go to teach then I am on the other side of the desk.”
Esquivel, along with the other 1998 trainees, are just two days away from being commissioned as Jesuit volunteers. Today, however, they are stationed at Trinidad Farm undergoing the orientation program that’s equipping them with valuable skills.
Sister Carolee Chanona
“Skills regarding teaching methods, also teaching of Spanish, working with young people, there was a very good input on the question of youth in crisis and the need and how to work with young people of building up one self esteem and empowerment.”
Sugey Waldman, J.V.B., Marla Holder House of Hope
“Had many informative sessions, have met new people. We have been able to get along in our community, that’s the volunteers and well, like this is a peaceful place and we have been able to relax.”
Farah Evans, who will be posted in San Ignacio as a volunteer teacher at Sacred Heart College, says the experience will help her as much as her students.
Farah Evans, J.V.B., Scared Heart College
“Well, for me, I recently graduated from sixth form and I am not sure what I wanted to study. So I decided that I would take a year off to try and find some direction in my life and I thought what better way than doing it by helping others.”
Most of the young volunteers admit that the experience ahead may be challenging, but Karen Jones, who will be placed at Youth Enhancement Services, says she does not believe she will have a problem with one of the J.V.B.’s values: that of living life simply.
Karen Jones, J.V.B., Y.E.S.
“Because most of the time people think that you need certain things to survive, and you really don’t. Being a Jesuit volunteer, the life is simple, meaning that you don’t have luxuries, like television and stuff like that and you get to learn about your community and you learn to deal with the other volunteers. You learn to share.”
And before you think the next step for these young Jesuit volunteers is wear a nun’s habit or priest’s collar, Sister Carolee says that is not what the program is about.
Sister Carolee Chanona
“It’s interesting that you would ask the question. Even parents of some of the volunteers last year said when they saw them packing certain clothes, said are you becoming a nun or a priest? And they would say no, no I have my boyfriend. No it really isn’t, not even as a hidden agenda.”
What isn’t hidden, is that at the end of the day, the life in a number of Belizean communities will have been improved and the pool of able young Belizean leaders will have been increased… in this case by eleven.
The liturgical service will be celebrated by bishop O.P. Martin on Thursday at Holy Redeemer Cathedral.
