Empower Her Symposium Fuels Rising Female Leaders

Women across Belize are pushing past long standing barriers and taking their place in boardrooms, businesses, and leadership roles once dominated by men. Today, BELTRAIDE brought together dozens of those trailblazers for its third Empower Her Symposium in Belize City, a space designed to inspire, mentor, and equip the next generation of female leaders. News Five’s Shane Williams takes us inside the event to show how this growing movement is helping women step into leadership with confidence and claim the opportunities they deserve.

 

Shane Williams, Reporting

Entrepreneurs, executives and young aspiring leaders from across the country gathered for BELTRAIDE’s third Empower Her Symposium where the message was clear: women belong at the decision-making table. The event brings together women from across Belize to share experiences, build networks and gain tools designed to strengthen leadership skills in the workplace and in business.

 

Sarita Bejerano, Manager, Belize Training and Employment Center

“It’s a two-day event that covers a series of topics essential for our women to grow in their career, in their business, or whichever endeavors they’re pursuing. We have curated an agenda that covers key topics such as emotional intelligence, health and wellness, transformational leadership, financial empowerment and we had today a very powerful fireside chat with Miss Marleni Cuellar of course.”

 

For many participants, the symposium is about learning how to navigate the real challenges women often face when stepping into leadership roles. Susan Ferguson is one of the participants breaking down barriers.

 

Susan Ferguson, Executive Director, Belize Emergency Response Team

“For me this empowerment  have definitely had me to reflect back. As women, we tend to think, look, make things look a little easy. I had to drop out of school at the age of 17 due to teenage pregnancy. But because of my determination and to show that I am more than just a statistics, I went back and finished my diploma, got my degree, and last week, Friday I graduated from the MIU University with my master’s degree.”

 

And she now runs one of the most critical NGOs in the country, the Belize Emergency Response Team.

 

Susan Ferguson

“As you know I do run an NGO that have considered many challenges, and so what I want to do is to reach out. And to get the right support that we need so that we can continue to do the what we were designed to do to continue to save life. that’s the purpose of BERT.”

 

Across Belize, women are increasingly launching businesses, leading organizations and shaping their communities. But advocates say support systems and mentorship opportunities remain critical to sustaining that progress.

 

Dr. Maxcine McKay, Assistant Professor, University of Belize

“I believe that women like men should be celebrating not only during the month of March. But during this month we are bringing to the forefront that women are critical, the important in all sector of society. We always suck about women taking up spaces in all places, and I think this month is especially critical for us to reignite that in all sectors in society. I can safely say that the women in our country. Need to continue to be at the forefront. They need to let their voices be heard, and we need to empower upcoming women to ensure that we are taking up spaces in all the places where possible. And we need to especially fill spaces in government, fill spaces in health and fill spaces in the media as well.”

 

Organizers say the Empower Her initiative is ensuring that the next generation of Belizean women is prepared not just to participate in the economy but to lead.

 

Sarita Bejerano

“We have managed to train around one hundred and fifty women that have stepped up in leadership roles, women that have create a network that they can count on each other in terms of mentorship. So that mentorship has been established and that education has been spreading. So I think that’s the start of a bigger change that can come through this training.”

 

Shane Williams for News Five.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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