Around 50 Women Complete Basic Entrepreneurship Training in Freetown
Ten days ago, the Freetown Area Representative and his constituency office teamed up with the Taiwan Embassy to offer a basic entrepreneurship program for single women in that area. Today, around fifty women from the Freetown division are now equipped with the know-how to better handle the small businesses or the job that they have. We spoke with Freetown Area Representative, Francis Fonseca, as well as Monique Gomez, a security guard who thought it important for her to take part in the training.
Francis Fonseca
Francis Fonseca, Area Representative, Freetown Constituency
“I’m very happy to be able to partner with the Taiwan ICDF Mission here in Belize to carry out this training. It’s part of a bigger project that the Taiwanese are promoting, which is women empowerment, a big women empowerment project. This was specifically aimed at equipping single mothers in the Freetown constituency with basic life skills, self care, but also equipping them with, you know, the capacity to not only find employment, but create employment for themselves. So those were the two basic objectives. So every day there was a different topic. They focused on interviewing skills, you know, even basic things like how you dress for an interview, how you prepare for an interview. But they also taught them basic skills about accounting, basic accounting practices, opening a bank account, the importance of saving, the importance of balancing your books when you’re running a small business. Many of these women here who participated in this workshop are small business entrepreneurs. They have very small businesses. They wanted to find ways of making those businesses more efficient, so that’s what this was all about.”
Monique Gomez
Monique Gomez, Security Officer, NICH
“I work with NICH, I da wa security. I work with NICH, you know, thanks to Mr. Francis and Ms. Merilyn, they give me that amazing job and I love it and I stick to it and I’m willing to hold on to it as long as I could.”
Marion Ali
“So how did this course help you – or how will it help you to hold on to the job?”
Monique Gomez
“Well, I learned a lot of different things and it will help me because when I work, I get upset, I get, you know, I get tantalized and this program teach me how to overcome all of that, you know, work with all of that, just like, you know, nuh pay it no mind, you know, instead of give an attitude, you know, say, yes, I like it, you have a good day today.”
Marion Ali
“Anger management.”
Monique Gomez
“Yes, yes ma’am.”
Reporter
“And did you pick up anything, maybe one of these days you’d want to open your own business, anything from the entrepreneurship part of the program?”
Monique Gomez
“Yes ma’am, yes ma’am. If I have to open any business, it will be sales stuff, because I get stuff to sell from the U.S. and what’s not, and I learn a lot.”
