BELIZE-YOUTH-CDB funding youth development project in Belize

BELMOPAN, Belize, May 4, CMC – Belize has launched a Youth Resilience and Inclusive Social Empowerment (Youth RISE) project that will expand social services for approximately 3,500 children, youth and families in the communities of Dangriga and San Ignacio/Santa Elena.
The Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is providing funding for the project through a US$750,000 grant and a US$984,000 loan to Belize that is providing counterpart funding of US$633,000.
The bank notes that in Dangriga and San Ignacio/Santa Elena, young people face many socioeconomic challenges, including the low attainment of educational qualifications, and increasing crime and violence.
The Youth RISE Project aims to expand access and coverage of existing social programmes, as well as introduce pilot programmes to tackle these challenges. Young people who live in these communities will benefit from training that will focus on basic literacy and numeracy and employability skills; adaptive life skills; along with community programmes which focus on social skills, it said.
Portfolio Manager at the CDB’s Social Sector Division, Dr. Idamay Denny, said the project will “holistically address a number of the risk factors for crime and violence, as well as deviant and anti-social behaviours that are affecting youth and families in these Districts, with particular emphasis on San Ignacio/Santa Elena and Dangriga.
“Our youth represent the future of this Region and an investment in them represents an investment in the quality of life our countries will experience in the future,” Denny added.
The project will be implemented by the Ministry of Human Development, Social Transformation and Poverty Alleviation (MOHD), through the Community Rehabilitation Department (CRD) and partner agencies namely: Delille Academy, Progressive Organization of Women in Action (POWA), Belize Family Life Association (BFLA), Community Policing Unit, Department of Youth Services, Cornerstone Foundation and St. Ignatius High School.
Human Development, Social Transformation and Poverty Alleviation Minister, Anthony Martinez, said the project is an investment in the children, youth and families of the targeted municipalities.
“An investment to improve life chances, to transform lives, to help individuals to RISE above adversities and achieve success,” he added.