YWCA Celebrates Milestone with Stories of Success

The YWCA has opened its doors and its history books today as it marks an impressive seventy years of empowering Belizean women and girls. Instead of simply celebrating a milestone, the organization is using this open day at its Belize City headquarters to show exactly how its programs have transformed lives, from helping young women return to the classroom, to training future teachers, entrepreneurs, and even master’s‑level graduates. Visitors also heard a powerful testimonial from a former student of the YWCA’s health program, as the association renews its call for support to revive several key services that were forced to pause due to limited funding. We spoke with Vice President Bernadette Ellis.

 

Bernadette Ellis, Vice President, YWCA

“We have impacted, going way back, the bricks that started this building was done by women. So, we are very proud of where we are and the impact. We have a guest speaker in a moment, Ms. Maryam, she has gone through our health program. This program for me touches my heart. This program is about helping early leavers. These are young ladies that have dropped out of the school system and we prepare them to get back. We have people with masters, doctorate, that have gone through our program, and entrepreneurs that have gone through our program. So, we are very proud of that program. Right now the program is not on for this semester, but we are hoping and praying that this year we can raise enough funds to carry that program, because it is needed, something that is very important. We have teachers that have gone through our preschool and health program. So, if you want to contribute you can always tap into us, go to our website and social media and get involved.”

 

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.

 

Watch the full newscast here: