35 youths who spent part of their summer in the jungle were honoured
at a commencement ceremony this morning at the Bliss Center. The youths, ranging
in age from 13 to 17, spent three weeks in the jungle – learning survival
skills from the Belize Defense Force and life skills from the Conscious Youth
Development Program. Lt. Shawn Young is CYDP’s military liaison officer
and he coordinated the training. Also spoke to Joseph Cadle, who was one of
the top recruits.
Lt. Shawn Young, Military Liaison Officer – CYDP
“It taught them various skills, drills, living together, discipline,
patience, and survival on a whole.”
Joseph Cadle, Survivor
“The nights in the jungle were the worst because you had to find your
food and if you didn’t find food you would go to sleep hungry and the
best thing you can do is just wait ‘til morning to come so you can say
a day has passed and so there is only one more day left, one more night. So
the two nights in the jungle were the roughest nights and I kind of liked it
and I kind of didn’t like it because the food part but it was good.”
Lt. Shawn Young,
“It is pretty evident from the comments of most of the kids that came
off the trek that they learnt how to cope more with situations in the city,
how to cope more with patience, how to get out of situations that they normally
would have been committing themselves or committing crimes. So they thought
that the camp taught them a lot of discipline and respect.”
Joseph Cadle,
“The experience was good and I know it will help me a lot for when
I go and plan to join the BDF right now because they taught us the basic stuff;
foot drills, basic unarmed combat, map reading, survival skills and stuff, things
that will help me also out here in the real world.”
Cadle was one of four participants who received scholarships.
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