Introduction
The Belize chapter of the Young Women's Christian Association is a member of the World YWCA, which is an international volunteer membership movement uniting some 25 million women in over 100 countries. The YWCAs of the Caribbean region are all affilliated to the World YWCA whose common purpose is to develop the leadership and collective power of women and girls around the world to achieve human rights, health, security, dignity, freedom, justice and peace for all people.
Empowering Women
The Belize YWCA is mandated to empower women and youth to lead change and has assumed that responsibility of reaching far and near to empower all in order to promote change. It has been an instrument of change; this change has gradually and directly impacted the nation over the years.
Innovative and developmentally sound strategies are continually conceived by the Board of Directors, staff and members of the organization to target the needs of young girls and women who would not otherwise have legitimate opportunities to access traditional education and training for jobs to sustain themselves and their families. In effect, we are challenged to explore the potential of women and youth and empower them so that they can work to bring about social change.
In 2008 the YWCA, with funding from the European Union, embarked on a Gender-Based Rural Sustainable Livelihoods Project. Through this project, 200 women of various ages from rural communities countrywide were provided with entrepreneurial skills training.
Today, the YWCA continues to provide services for women and youth in order to create economic opportunities for them to become productive, and be able to generate income and gainful employment, which will impact themselves and their families.
Innovative and developmentally sound strategies are continually conceived by the Board of Directors, staff and members of the organization to target the needs of young girls and women who would not otherwise have legitimate opportunities to access traditional education and training for jobs to sustain themselves and their families. In effect, we are challenged to explore the potential of women and youth and empower them so that they can work to bring about social change.
In 2008 the YWCA, with funding from the European Union, embarked on a Gender-Based Rural Sustainable Livelihoods Project. Through this project, 200 women of various ages from rural communities countrywide were provided with entrepreneurial skills training.
Today, the YWCA continues to provide services for women and youth in order to create economic opportunities for them to become productive, and be able to generate income and gainful employment, which will impact themselves and their families.