Across the world, International Women’s Day is celebrated in March, on Friday March 10th, Hamanasi along with the BFLA Clinic (Belize Family Life Association) held its very first Women’s Rally.
All the working woman of Hamanasi came together to celebrate “Empowering Women in a Changing World: Planet 50-50 by 2030”. This successful event was organized by Hamanasi’s Human Resources Manager, Jackie Martinez, who said, “This rally was a great avenue to empower women and for them to voice women-related issues they face daily, in the hope of achieving gender equality”.
Jackie went on to say, “We were honored to have had some very strong and dynamic female guest speakers who encouraged the ladies to take ownership of their happiness and to enjoy a relationship with themselves! LOVE yourself before learning to love someone else.”
Some of the guest speakers of the day were Michelle Irving, co-ordinator from POWA (Productive Organization for Women in Action), an organization that has been active in Dangriga since 2003 and is all about empowering young woman. She shared some very real statistics on teenage pregnancies and HIV/AIDS infections. Ms. Irving encouraged woman of all ages to stand up for woman’s rights and, especially, to speak out when you know something wrong is is happening.
Mrs. Joan Burke-Skeen, Director of BFLA (Belize Family Life Association), dedicated her speech to Nurse Basto of Orange Walk, who was in an abusive relationship and was murdered by her husband several years ago. Mrs. Burke-Skeen talked about the importance of supporting each other as woman and coming together more often to talk about the issues we women face daily.
Ms Christalyn Castillo, Queen of the Bay Belize 2017, a very young, smart, beautiful woman spoke about woman uniting and lifting each other up and encouraging the young girls of today, to be confident with who they are as woman.
And last, but not least Ms Kenima Martinez had most of the ladies in tears when she sang ‘Superwoman’ from Alicia Keys!
What a wonderful, inspirational day for all of us women at Hamanasi to come together and feel empowered!
“Feminism isn’t about making woman stronger. Woman are already strong. Its about changing the way the world perceives that strength.” – GD Anderson.
