We are incredibly excited to announce that last week, we successfully completed the first stage of the Training of Facilitators. The training took place in Belmopan, Belize and concluded on the 27th June 2014. 19 youth leaders were equipped with the skills, knowledge and ignited passion to reach more than 2000 young people through road safety workshops across Belize.
With the support of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in partnership with the Government of Belize (GOBZ) last week, YOURS successfully completed a two week Training of Facilitators undertaken by 19 bright, passionate and inspiring youth leaders from across Belize.
The training, part of a wider 20 month educational project existing alongside major road infrastructure and law enforcement upgrades comes at a time where young people are the biggest affected group in relation to road traffic crashes. The national road safety project sees the development of several major highways and the illustrative ‘road safety corridor’ which will be created as a beacon for the rest of the country to follow suit in safe infrastructure. Belize alone has 22.2 inhabitants dying per 100,000 citizens; a high proportion of road deaths in the world and one of the highest in the Caribbean. We place this in comparison to other countries such as The Netherlands which has a ratio of 3.4 per 100,000 and the UK’s 3.7 per 100,000 citizens.
Director of YOURS, Floor Lieshout, Rt Honarable Minister of Education Patrick Faber and Caribbean Development Bank representative and architect of the programme, Mr Glen Mc Carvell speak in the closing ceremony.
19 young people from across Belize picked up their graduation certificate at the end of the two weeks which was presented by R.t Hon Minister of Education Patrick Faber and Caribbean Development Bank representative Glen McCarvell. The two weeks concluded with the closing ceremony of the first staage of the programme. The subseqent year will see these 19 young people reach out to over 2000 young people from across Belize.
In week one, the young leaders participated in a week of road safety theory. From how crashes happen to why youth are at particular risk of road crashes; from road safety in Belize to road safety in the world, from distracted driving to drink and drug driving through the speeding. The young Belizean leaders were also given an in depth insight into the fundamentals of human learning and the key skills for facilitation, crucial for the youth to be able run their own workshops with their peers which are interactive, engaging and educational.
The trained youth facilitators ran their own pilot workshops in week two putting theory into practice.
In week two, the trained facilitators put their theory into practice by running youth and road safety workshops for the first time with a selection of young people from across Belize. In total, our facilitators were already able to reach 120 young people in a series of six pilot workshops focusing on distracted driving, speed and drink driving. As a first taster of their own workshops, the trained facilitators are now ready to go out and reach thousands of young people in youth and road safety workshops.
YOURS takes this opportunity to thank all the partners involved in making this first leg of the training a real success. Namely, Mr Glen Mc Carvell of the Caribean Development Bank who has championed this programme in the Caribbean Region, Ms Pamela Scott of the Road Safety Project in the Finance and Project Management Department of the Government of Belize and of course the young people for their spirit, dedication and passion for the cause. In the coming year, 2000 youth will be reached and YOURS will be visit Belize again to see the youth in action and address and any learning needs. After this, a refreshment training will be undertaken and subsequently reaching a second cohort of young facilitators.
You can be sure to check out several videos in true YOURS style shortly!