REGIONAL PROGRAM TO BE ADOPTED TO SUIT BELIZE

March 16, 2010

GOJoven is a youth leadership training in Sexual and Reproductive Health. It is a regional program which includes participation from Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Quintana Roo, Mexico. The focus of the program is to strengthen youth leadership in these countries to better improve the sexual and reproductive health of other youth and adolescents. The program is now in its sixth year, and this year’s regional training in Flores Peten, Guatemala concluded on Sunday March 14th. Esther Tahrir is the Director of GOJoven.

Esther Tahrir; Director, GOJoven

“The purpose of the program is to strengthen the leadership young people that are already doing work in sexual reproductive health, in violence against women, in HIV prevention and over the six years the program has graduated over one hundred leaders. There were about thirty from Belize and those young ladies are working in organizations to strengthen that organization’s capacity to work in sexual and reproductive health and are also sharing information that they learned with thousands of other youth in their communities. We focus on a recruitment process that looks for young people that have already shown a certain amount of leadership in their communities or in their organizations. These are people that are already acknowledged by their community, organization of university as young people that are already working for other young people and other young people rights and health. The focus is that these young people already have a lot of the commitment and the passion and with even more resources, more knowledge, more skills they will be able to take that commitment to an even higher level and have a even larger impact.”

The program graduated a new cohort of 2009 Fellow, as the participating youths are called. This was the last official training where Belizean youths participated. Tahrir says that they will be initiating a new program in English for Belize alone.

Esther Tahrir

“We are also initiating a new Belizean program in English for the country of Belize where we will be this year selecting twelve young people to participate in and English version of our youth sexual and reproductive health program. It is similar to the GOJoven, it is based on the GOJoven model which has been very effectively given in Spanish regionally. The difference is that it will be specifically focused on the context of Belize and it will be run primarily by the graduates of the regional program so the thirty Belizean alumni will be very instrumental in bringing the program to Belize.”

The plans are for GOJoven Belize to run from 2010 to 2012. In collaborating with the 4H Youth Development Center in Belmopan, the program hopes to advance Sexual and Reproductive Health in Belize by allowing youth leaders in all six districts to benefit from the leadership training. But why Sexual and Reproductive health? Tahrir explains.

Esther Tahrir   

“Sexual reproductive health is one of the most important things affecting young people and young people unfortunately are disproportionately in new HIV cases. Young people most often are suffering from unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, they suffer from violence and violence against women. They also suffer from a powerlessness and disrespect and so it is very important to address these issues and to believe in the power of young people and to help to strengthen their capacity to make good and healthy decisions and to believe in themselves and their capacity to make a change in their country.”

The program is supported by the Summit Foundation.

|

|