Preserves course for Port Loyola
A project that has been successful in a village in the Corozal District is coming to the city. Over the next two months women from Concepcion are teaching their sisters in the Port Loyola division of Belize City to make money in their own homes. News Five was at the Sister Clara Mohammed School for the first day of the course.
The women who spend most of their time at home keeping house or cooking are learning how to make money from what they do best. The course teaches the participants how to make, preserve and market food made from fruits that they can grow themselves or buy at the market. Today’s recipe was pineapple jam.
Marga Sanchez, Coordinator, Project
“We want women to learn as much as possible so that they can go out to the market and sell their products that they will be learning. They will be learning to make different jams, the preservation of different fruits like papaya, pineapple and guava. They will also be learning how to make tomato ketchup from scratch, chili, jalapeño and salsa casera.”
The twenty-three women are from the Port Loyola division. They say that while it is the first time they are trying their hands at making preserves, they do see themselves going into business at the end of the course.
Princannitia Ocollor, Participant
“Because we are just starting to do this now but then gradually we will make things and have them displayed. Some people will like it. Well you see it is very nice to have friends and to make these things to show that we Belizeans can do these things.”
Q: “So you plan to go into your own business after this?”
Princannitia Ocollor
“Yes.”
Marga Sanchez
“We have a majority of women, not only in Port Loyola but in Belize in general, independent mothers and they need to learn some kind of skill to help themselves and to help their families. I do believe that they will be able to make money from what they have learnt because the women who are teaching are from Concepcion Village and they have been generating a lot of income.”
As one participant remarked, we should stop depending on others and start thinking about what we can do to help ourselves become financially independent. Reporting for News Five, I am Jacqueline Woods.
The food processing, storing and market course will continue for the next two months at the Sister Clara Mohammed School. The project is being sponsored by the Ministry of Human Development, Women and Youth and coordinated by the Women’s Department.
