Student poetry contest focuses on child abuse
Competitions for students are a growing trend in Belize and today one local organisation rewarded another set of winners. But what made this ceremony different was the issue promoted by the contest. News Five’s Janelle Chanona has more.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
Sexual abuse is one of those sensitive issues rarely discussed in our society. But that culture of silence has allowed the crime to damage the lives of thousands of Belizeans. One of the local organisations trying to break the cycle of abuse through awareness is Youth Enhancement Services. One of the YES’ initiatives this year was a poetry competition for primary and high school students.
Earleth Reneau, Outreach Officer, YES
“Most of the time children won’t come to you and tell you what’s happening to them. They would rather put it on paper and some of the poems sound realistic but then we don’t really know if it’s realistic but we thought if we introduce a poem about sexual abuse and exploitation to kids, they would come out and talk about it.”
Adele Ramos, Poet/Judge
“A lot of the times there’s this sense of helplessness within the victims and for the children to be able to—even they are being abused, they feel so powerless but with the pen you have so much power.”
More than a hundred entries were submitted to the judges’ panel. The majority of the authors live in the Belize district but poems from as far away as Corozal and Belmopan were reviewed.
Adele Ramos
“I got goosebumps a lot of the times reading them because you know that they are speaking from the heart and you know that this stuff really really happens and you can feel the pain. All the winners were girls and I’m very proud of them but I also want to encourage the young boys out there to also be more active in writing because I think that the perspective of our male counterparts is very important. In fact, I was one of the people who voted for the young man who took the role of the abuser because I thought that he was very creative in his piece and I want to encourage him, even though he didn’t make it to the top three to keep on writing.”
Organisers hope to publish the winning poems to share the pain and encourage others to help in the fight against sexual abuse and exploitation. According to YES Advocacy Officer Inda Wright, victims often live in poor, single parent households.
Inda Wright, Advocacy Officer, YES
“We have a lot of children who are left unsupervised because we have a lot of single parent families as well, parents have to work, children are left unattended. Its an indicator, it provides a channel for people to try to abuse these kids.”
Janelle Chanona
“Do you find a lot of mothers pimping out their children?”
Inda Wright
“We have found that some mothers do. Some, because they are not educated about it, because it has happened to them before so they thought it was just a way of life, culturally accepted in some instances. But it is a hope that as we continue to speak out about the issues, as we continue to educate people about commercial sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, that more are going to denounce these acts.”
And as abusers prey on young girls and boys, they bring sexually transmitted diseases like HIV as an additional assault on our country’s young and most vulnerable citizens. Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona.
Briyanni Balan of St. Ignatius was the winner in the eight to twelve year old category, Miekah Mohammed Ali of Burrell Boom Methodist placed second and Tessa Byrd of St. Ignatius took third place. In the thirteen to seventeen division, Edward P Yorke High dominated the podium as Heather Baizar, Audralee Enriquez and Jacklyn Gillett placed first, second and third respectively. All the winners received cash prizes and certificates for their outstanding poems.
