7 News Belize

Stopping Violence Before It Starts
posted (October 17, 2011)
Pre-emptive conflict management was being taught today at UB's West Landivar Campus, Belize City.

It's part of a workshop called The "Alternative to Violence Project Training" and the idea is to identify the root causes of violence, in an attempt to avoid uncontrollably violent situations in our societies.

We found out more when we visited today:..

Audrey Mang, Facilitator, NY State
"It really is a way to open people up to the idea that there are alternatives to the negative ways we behave, there are skills we can learn, there are attitudes we can developed, there are concepts, I would say goals to aim for. If someone believes that every time something goes wrong the only way to react is to "whack 'em", we'd never get any better. But what the program is about is to help people begin to believe that they can do things differently and then that affects everything around them."

Cynthia Ellis Topsey, Facilitator
"I became introduce to this program when I was living in Buffalo NY many years ago as a mother. My husband had just died Harry Topsey. I had three teenage boys and two young women to take care of - five children and I was concern about my young teenage boys not getting involve in issues of violence and became aware of this program and decide to get the training for personal reasons and as I got involved in it I said I would to have more people have the experience and especially bring it to Belize."

Dr. Vincent Palacio, Dean - UB Facilitator of Social Sciences
"The objective is very simple, we are concern about what is happening out there and we feel that there are different things taking place and we could look at other ways and this is just another way in which we hope that our crime situation will be address. So at the University we are very, very careful in looking at ways in which we could get involve with our partners in trying to address our crime situation."

Cynthia Ellis Topsey, Facilitator
"For me it's not just a workshop, for me it's a movement, for me it's a practical mechanism or means by which we can walk the talk."

Audrey Mang, Facilitator, NY State
"Belize is remarkable for feeling like one big family but every family has problems and I believe that the people who are here are really determined to make a change."

The training consists of a Basic Level workshop for the first two days and followed by an Advanced Level workshop.

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7 News Belize