BA1 Project Rolls Out Seed Capital to 240 Belizean Women

“Opportunities, Risks, and Victories: Women carving their own images on Belize’s canvas” – it’s the theme for a project ceremony held today at the Radisson that empowers women into achieving life goals and improving their economic conditions. Today, some two hundred and forty women from across the country received seed capital grants as a part of a project of the Central American Integration System, SICA, to prevent violence against women in Central America. Belize is one of seven countries in which the BA-1 project is being rolled out. According to the C.E.O. in the Ministry of Human Development, Judith Alpuche, the BA-1 project seeks to address gender base violence in all its form—violence against women, femicide and human trafficking. This particular project empowers women economically.

Judith Alpuche

Judith Alpuche, C.E.O., Ministry of Human Development

“This particular activity is looking at economic empowerment for women who are either survivors of violence, these types of violence, or are at risk because of several factors, because of their socio-economic levels, because of several things that make them vulnerable to being victims of these type of violence. I think it is so poignant that we doing this event in view of what happened this morning where we actually have an incident of femicide in Belmopan and I think that this just highlights the need for these types of projects, for these types of initiatives. Economic empowerment it such a critical piece just in terms of it can be both a prevention and intervention strategy for gender-base violence, for violence against women. It provides women with…when a woman is financially independent, she is less vulnerable. It is not of course the panacea, but it is a critical piece because with financial independence and some kind of livelihood that provides her with some choices and often times, women find themselves in these situations of violence or stay within relationships because they don’t have the financial wherewithal. And so what we have here is an activity that focuses on that very important prevention and intervention strategy.”