Women urged to become mentors for teen girls

Mentor: it’s a fancy title for a person who simply uses his or her experience to help someone else. And a little bit of help is something all of us could use. Kendra Griffith has more.

Forum Participant
?All of us could be a mentor, because whatever you don?t get in the home from your mother or your father, this is where we fill that gap. And in Belize, oh boy, we need that.?

Kendra Griffith
To fill that need, today approximately fifty-eight women from across the country gathered at the Radisson Fort George Hotel at the invitation of the Women?s Department and Women?s Commission for training in becoming a mentor.

Karen Cain, Director Designate, Y.E.S.
?What we taught was important to discuss today was setting boundaries, understanding what is the mentoring process, and how to go about mentoring a young lady.?

The sessions are being facilitated by the Youth Enhancement Services. Training is spread across six weeks and covers topics that will provide the potential mentors with essential skills including crisis management, understanding adolescents, and how to communicate.

The Mentoring Programme is a recommendation that came out of the Women?s Summit held in March of this year. For Ambassador responsible for Women and Children, Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, the initiative will help to keep girls on the right path.

Ambassador Dolores Balderamos-Garcia
?We want to make sure that young girls stay in school, that young girls don?t become pregnant at early age, they don?t acquire HIV, they don?t exhibit vulnerabilities, and so this is what the mentoring programme is really all about today.?

?Because we think that if the young girls of our country are to have a future, we as women who have achieved, we as women who are working in the various areas of the community, it could be banking, it could be finance, whatever you want us to be involved in, it?s good to have these young girls come forward and to really get that guidance that we are talking about.?

With less than ten percent of Belize?s women in decision making roles, Ambassador Garcia hopes that the programme will encourage all women to become more involved.

Ambassador Dolores Balderamos-Garcia
?If we are to reach the target of thirty percent women in our parliament and power and decision making, we have to start with encouraging the young girls, and that?s what this is all about.?

?We can count on one hand women who have actually been in government in this country. And we need a greater critical mass to make the kinds of differences in our society that we need. And women need to take our rightful place in government, in business, in community development, in tourism, all over the place. That?s not to say that we haven?t been doing well, but we feel that our young girls, to ensure that the trail will continue to have people coming forward, that our young girls need the attention.?

And while many of the women present today have committed to becoming a mentor, the job is not for everyone.

Karen Cain
?But one of the important thing that you must have, one quality that I think you must have is the fact that you?re a good listener, you?re patient, and you love to work with young people.?

If you fit that description and are interested in becoming a mentor, contact the Women?s Department or the Women?s Commission for more information. Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.

The programme is open to girls thirteen years and older. It is scheduled to be up and running by July.