Single mothers getting skills and trade training
If you are a single mother looking for an opportunity to learn a skill or trade, there is good news for you. The Women’s Department through the Ministry for Social Transformation is assisting single mothers to generate income. The department is offering a job placement program called “Supporting Single Mothers in Belize City”. Through consultation with non-governmental organizations and partnerships with community outreach agencies, the Women’s Department will provide four months of skills training in areas of sewing, housekeeping, cosmetology and childcare services. Job Placement Officer of the Women’s Department, Elisa Castellanos, told us that at the end of the training, the department expects to find jobs for most, if not all, participating mothers.
Elisa Castellanos, Job Placement Officer, Women’s Dept.
“We are looking at single mothers from within the city right now—it is specific to the city. Single mothers who don’t have support from a partner or don’t have support—who have children under their care and don’t have support from, whether it be a partner or a family member, people who are in high risk areas of the city, people who need to make money and are finding a struggling to make ends meet. The purpose of it is to aid single mothers, to provide them with support so that they can get trained in a skill and then use that skill to generate income so that they then can make a better living for themselves and their children. There is a screening process where we sit and do a first interview and then we sit down, we review the data that was provided during that interview and then we do a second interview and then we make a decision whether or not that participant qualifies.”
Concurrently with the training, a mentorship program will be run to provide motivational support to the participants. The deadline to apply for the job placement program ends on November seventh and the program is scheduled to start on November seventeenth. For more information, contact Elisa Castellanos at the Women’s Department Office on Albert Street or call 227-3888 or 227-7397.
