Nearly 60 Belizean Entrepreneurs Complete Capacity Building Training

There’s a wave of empowerment rising in Southern Belize. In the villages of Gales Point and Mullins River, residents are turning opportunity into action. This week, sixty Belizeans proudly completed a skills training program designed to boost livelihoods and open new doors, part of a major initiative tied to the Coastal Plain Highway Project. With support from BELTRAIDE and several international and local partners, these communities are proving that when opportunity knocks, they’re ready to answer. News Five’s Britney Gordon brings us the story from Gales Point.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

The Livelihood Strategic Action Plan aims to build economic resilience and create sustainable livelihood opportunities in Gales Point Village and Mullins River Village. This week, fifty-nine villagers proudly completed an entrepreneurial development training program, equipping them with the tools and knowledge to launch and grow their own businesses. But that’s not all, BELTRAIDE, the agency leading the charge, has been working together with the community to formalize and register a total of eighty micro and small enterprises.

 

Ishmael Quiroz, Executive Director, BELTRAIDE

“BELTRAIDE for its part has been tremendously honored to be the lead agency in the entrepreneurial development component of this project, which focuses on the formalization of businesses, capacity building and increasing market access, and what these things speak to is helping you to register your businesses, register your business names because they are yours and they’re sacred and special, and we’re giving you that security capacity, building through the training, through the knowledge, through the refreshers that you’ve heard during the lessons, and of course increasing market access, helping you to be able to get to your clients, to your customers, and to retain them.”

 

When communities are given the right tools, they don’t just survive, they thrive. That’s the vision behind the Belize Social Investment Fund’s latest efforts. By backing initiatives that build stronger local economies and support self-reliance, SIF is helping to lay the foundation for long-term success in villages across the country.

 

Carlos Tun, Executive Director, Belize Social Investment Fund

“We are best known for our contribution to infrastructure projects in the areas of water education and health. But an equally important pillar of our mission is the social component. it is this component. That brings us here today as we witness the tangible results of a program focused not just on infrastructure, but on people. This training initiative is a critical part of empowering individuals and communities by enhancing knowledge, by nurturing innovation, and by fostering entrepreneurship.”

 

Transforming communities, one project at a time—that’s the goal behind the UK-funded Coastal Road Upgrading Project. Backed by a generous thirty-two-million-dollar grant from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, this initiative is already making a difference in places like Gales Point. And for residents like Leroy Andrewin, the impact is personal.

 

Leroy Andrewin, Gales Point Mantee Resident

“Now you all give us the tools to work with and everything, and we have the seed to plant. And so when we plant the seed, we hope for the seed to go and make Gales Point into a better Gales Point business to spread, to help spread the news about this business, and thank the teachers, especially teachers, and you all to do this for us. Gales Point is a beautiful village and we always feel like we’re left behind. But now this happened to Gales Point. We know we didn’t left behind. We are part of the system.”

 

The program supported forty-three female-owned and thirty-seven male-owned businesses in sectors such as food, agriculture, tourism, and electrical sectors. Britney Gordon for News Five.

 

The organization’s plan to further support the villages growing entrepreneurial community by hosting a Buy Belizean Expo in Dangriga Town on June fourteenth, 2025.