Young activists receive help with community projects
It is an international campaign that arrived in Belize last year, but the UNICEF sponsored Xchange movement has taken root quickly. Today Belizean Xchangers received some financial encouragement in their efforts to make life better in their respective communities.
Rana Flowers, UNICEF Rep in Belize
?It?s not about young people as a problem, it?s about young people as activists.?
Kendra Griffith, Reporting
And to encourage that activism, earlier this year UNICEF Xchange launched a grant programme entitled ?Xchange your positive ideas for a positive development.?
Rana Flowers
?The old approach to development was we bring in an expert, they?ll do it for them. Uh-uh, it?s not going to work. Instead let?s ask them to come together and develop proposals. Nothing cheap or easy about this task; they needed to establish what a proposal was and they needed to work out what played a major problem in their communities that they were going to address. They had to find concrete, real solutions, they had to prepare a budget that was realistic, and they had to write it all up in a way that was compelling to an advisory committee who selected them on the basis of criteria.?
Karen Cain, Member, Xchange Advisory Committee
?The project should deal with a problem or issue that adolescents identify as a priority need. The project should be designed, implemented and evaluated by adolescents. The project should produce a lasting change in the community, and lastly the project should each benefit boys and girls, particularly the disadvantaged.?
Twenty-seven proposals were submitted and after applying the criteria, that number was whittled down to nine. Today the youths were at the House of Culture to pick up their cheques.
In Belize City, the Salvation Army Youth Group will be implementing a literacy programme, targeting kids between eight to twelve years old; while the My Neighbours and Me youth group will be promoting youth friendly environments.
Ashman Wiltshire, My Neighbours and Me
?We intend to combat the negative influences in our neighbourhood by creating an innovative youth friendly space for children to congregate and socialise free from negative influence and to develop and promote these children?s in the areas of dance, drama, music, sports, arts and academic assistance.?
In the West, Xchange Core Groups will focus on teen pregnancy and crime and violence.
Gloria Avila, Cayo Xchange Core Group
?What we are trying to do in the Arenal Village is from this date on … from this day onwards is to increase the villagers knowledge on the topics such as sexual reproduction health between youths of ages sixteen to nineteen both young women and men and increase the availability of contraceptive. We hope to and we are sure that we are going to reduce the rate of teenage pregnancy in that area and the youths will take into consideration all the methods that are required for family planning.?
Doris Dougall, Cayo Xchange Core Group
?I am going to try to introduce the process of mediation within San Ignacio and Santa Elena. Through this process we will be speaking with both the youths and police officers in bringing both sides together to agreeing to a non-violent community. After this process has been accomplished I will be implementing activities with both parties.?
The Corozal based Soccer in the Streets programme received seventeen hundred dollars for sport development … while another fourteen hundred went to Charlotta Casanova, whose youth group will try to keep drugs out of her community.
Errol Longsworth, Soccer in the Streets
?This programme aims to remove financial barriers that prohibit our youths from being involved in meaningful, athletic and recreational activities. It will also have our youths involved in positive activities which will not only teach soccer basics, but also life skills such as discipline, responsibility, socilisation and teamwork.?
Carlotta Casanova, Corozal Xchange Core Group
?In our community what we are facing is drugs and older people introducing drugs to our young people and they also take it to the high school where they sell it and introduce it to their friends and I noticed that that is a problem in our community, so that is what we are trying to work along with the community, family members, and teachers to try and solve.?
In Dangriga, the emphasis will be on HIV.
Melvin Diego, Morph Generation
?To face that problem we are to do an infomercial about HIV/AIDS, which we will bring out the issues which we think is social issues. We will reach out to the youths in high schools and view it on the local media station in Dangriga. And we will try to get a feedback from this, which we will try to do a peer counselling with the youths.?
Eula Sabal, FIPRO
?Our project is geared towards the alleviation of stigma and discrimination within the Dangriga community with special emphasis to in school youths as well as the unattached.?
Sabal?s FIPRO group plans to do so by peer education training, and by public speaking and poetry competitions.
And lastly, Toledo?s Fern Gutierrez and Tracy Busano received twenty-five hundred dollars to start an apprenticeship programme.
Tracy Busano, Toledo Xchange Core Group
?Youths will be provided with suitable training by different governmental and non-governmental institutions. They will by working alongside with trained personnel in their area of concentration. We also aim at decreasing crime and violence, which involves adolescents, ages ten to eighteen.?
With their money in hand the youths now have three months in which to implement their proposals.
Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.
The amount donated by UNICEF Xchange totalled just under fourteen thousand dollars. Youth Enhancement Services will assist in the monitoring and evaluation of the projects.
