NOPCA elects new board
The National Organization for the Prevention of Child Abuse last night held its annual general meeting. In her report to the membership Executive Director Lorna McDougall reviewed the works carried out by NOPCA during the last twelve months and said that with funding sources fast disappearing, NOPCA is fighting an uphill battle to keep its doors open.
Lorna McDougall, Executive Director, NOPCA
“We still do not have the empirical data to show us the true nature and scope of child abuse in Belize. But just from our clinical experience, the reports that we have had from other agencies, for instance, the police, social services, from schools, coming from teachers and people in the community, indicates that
the problem is widespread; it’s very prevalent.
The last year was a very challenging one in that we were faced with serious financial constraints and even with that we had a plan that we were committed to implementing. So because of that we had to become very innovative in terms of developing strategies to implement those services as was planned.
This year we are focussing on parenting education and volunteer training. The volunteers training is to try and strengthen our institutional capacity. With limited funds we are unable to pay salaries and so the need for voluntary workers was recognized. And what we are doing right now is to train a number of volunteers and we are hoping that these people will be able to assist us in the service that we provide.”
Earlier this year, NOPCA received over twenty seven thousand U.S. dollars from the Japanese government to train parents in the Stann Creek and Toledo Districts. Also at last night’s annual general meeting, a new board of directors for NOPCA was appointed, and for the first time in its history the organization named a patroness. She is former Radio Belize broadcaster and current Communications Executive Cynthia Henry.
