Our Work With the Youth Business Trust Belize

Pat and I both have been working on a new project. We have been working with an NGO called the Youth Business Trust of Belize. It is a really neat project because YBTB promotes entrepreneurship to Belizean youth between the ages of 18 to 35. Research has shown that promoting small business development and entrepreneurship in developing countries leads to economic progress. The YBTB program recruits young entrepreneurs with a viable business idea and assists them in developing that idea in to a small business through training, mentorship, and offering micro loans to assist with start up capital. Pat and I are working with our counterpart to strengthen the organization and assisting with the implementation of services such as recruitment and training of mentors and entrepreneurs. We have also been fortunate enough to assist with some of YBTB’s outreach and awareness activities. We assisted with the Youth Ambassador program which was funded by the US State Department. Youth from all over the country were asked to enter an essay contest that focused on entrepreneurship. The winners of the contest had the opportunity to spend 3 weeks in the states going to Georgetown University, University of Wisconsin, and the University of Alabama to learn about business development and entrepreneurship. This is an amazing program! These students had a life changing experience while in the US. Pat and I had the opportunity to participate in their debriefing once they returned and we can not say enough about the obvious changes this trip made in their perceptions of business and entrepreneurship.



The next really neat event for YBTB that Pat and I assisted with was Global Entrepreneur Week 2010. Pat organized a really interesting Symposium at the University of Belize to promote entrepreneurship. He organized some leading Belizean Entrepreneurs including our personal favorite product and entrepreneur, Marie Sharp of Marie Sharp's Hot Sauce! Pat also had one of our YBTB entrepreneur’s, Ms. Kaila of Belize Puzzles present her experience.
YBTB assisted Ms. Kaila with getting her puzzle cutting machine and she is now a thriving entrepreneur. Also presenting was representatives from the Social Security office, the General Sale Tax office, and other government organizations to provide information on how to start a business. It was a well attended event and it is planned to be an annual event.















Pat and I also assisted with YBTB’s Innovative Entrepreneur Contest. We invited all of the high schools in Belize city to participate in the event. The schools were asked to have 4 teams and they were given a flashlight, potato peeler, fold up hamper, and a rain coat. The teams were asked to improve the product or change it completely. They were judged on innovation, development of marketing material, identifying their target market, and pricing. We had the best time judging this contest. The students came up with such innovative ideas and did such an excellent job marketing their product. Check out some of the products. The winning team out of all the teams was the FLAMP. They converted the flashlight into a lamp, alarm clock, and fan. As you can see it was very creative but all the students did such a wonderful job with their products. The judges were very impressed with all the teams and their products. We look forward to conducting the competition again next year but hopefully country wide.

Keri's Secondary Project: NaRCIE

I don’t believe we have written much about my secondary project, but in honor of International Disabilities Week I thought it would be a great time to show case the work that NaRCIE does. NaRCIE stands for the National Resource Center for Inclusive Education. They are under Belize’s Ministry of Education and is responsible for identifying all the special needs or children with disabilities through out the country. They have about 18 to 20 IRO’s or Inclusive Resource Officers that are responsible for assessing every referral in the country. This includes hearing impaired, visually impaired, physical disabilities, developmental disabilities, emotional, psychological, behavioral problems, speech, and any/or all other learning disabilities. As you can tell this is a daunting task with limited resources. It is amazing the work that these officers accomplish. I have been out in the field with some of the IRO’s and just getting to some of the remote villages to assess the children is very challenging and they only have one vehicle for 20 officers to travel the entire country. They are required to visit every school in their area monthly which is a huge undertaking and unfortunately the have to rely on bus transportation. Some remote villages only have one bus in or out a day so they must stay the night or find transportation. The other heartbreaking issue is once they identify students with special needs or with a disability they have little or almost no services to put in place. The IRO’s try to assist the teachers in providing as much services as possible. So the IRO’s not only assess the students, create an educational plan but most of the time they provide the services or try to teach the school personnel to provide the services. The IRO’s are very committed to their jobs and are able to do amazing work with very little resources or assistance. I have been fortunate enough to work with the IRO’s in assessment of behavior by using the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis. I have assisted them with children who have demonstrated behavior problems in the classroom. I also conducted 20 hours of ABA training to the IRO’s and it was a wonderful experience. I really enjoyed teaching the IRO’s and working with them in the field. I have been able to go with them to the classrooms and work with some of the teachers and parents. I have gone to remote villages to work with children who can’t attend school due to the severity of the behavior problems or disability. This is especially sad. Some of the pictures are of children and families I visited that unable to attend school. The schools are not required to take all students. This is very different from the states where children have the “right” to an education regardless of their disabilities but here in Belize school is a privilege. The parents must pay for their children to attend and they are responsible for paying for all their materials and uniforms. It is supposed to be free but it ends up being very expensive for the parents. The Government of Belize does not have the money or resources to fully support the education system. NaRCIE is doing a wonderful job at making changes to the curriculum and pushing national policy to improve standards for children with disabilities. It is amazing what they have been able to accomplish with such limited resources. They conduct awareness campaigns such as promoting awareness during International Disabilities week which I was invited to participate. NaRCIE partnered with several other NGO/CBO’s and schools to celebrate this week. I have included some of the pictures from the parade. If you would like to learn more about the work that NaRCIE does go to their website NaRCIE