Tonight on this newscast, you've seen so much about crime and violence - but that's only a symptom. For many the problem is a lack of opportunity, reinforced by poor education - which started most likely when they dropped out of school.
And - if you want to go back one more step - that dropping out was possibly preceded by doing poorly in reading. And of you can't read well, school will always be a challenge.
And that's the focus of a new program from Restore Belize. It's called"Computer Assisted Learning" and will spend 318 thousand dollars to improve the literacy skills of children and their families.
The poster youths will be Nia Arthurs and Michael Young. They come from different backgrounds: she's a prolific readers and he can't read: but they share a hunger for learning.
They explained at the launch this morning:
Nia Arthurs - Member of Literacy Program
"Reading is so special to me. I love reading. I spend most of my time reading. TV, internet, and computers they aren't as important to me as reading. So I really enjoy reading."
Michael Young - Member of Literacy Program
"I won't tell you any lie. I want to learn how to read, and I know a lot of individuals who would want to learn too. But, they won't be like me. They will not say, 'I can't read. Help me.' They won't do that. They have too much pride. I am not saying that I don't have pride too, but you have to look past that sometimes. I know that I need help, so"
Nia Arthurs
"It takes you places that you've never been before. I am just talking about personal experiences. When I am reading, I can be anything. I feel like I can go anywhere, but that's just personally. On the outside, it helps you with your articulation. It helps you to speak better. It widens your vocabulary. And it really just empowers you in terms of your words, your sentences, and what you can do with them."
Mary Vasquez - Director, Restore Belize
"We've been talking about literacy, and the importance of literacy in lifting Belize out of the violence problems, and out of the social and economic problems that we have, from day 1. What this means now though, is that we have the ability. We have the technology now to spread this benefit. So, whereas when you did an after-school program, you're helping maybe 30 or 40 children, with this one agency, you can literally help 50 people in one day. 50 people can go through an agency in one day, or even more than 50, depending on the capacity. So, this really is the pinnacle of success for us in pursuing this objective that we've had of improving literacy."
Arthurs and Young will be feature don billboards starting next year.
The programme is funded by the Taiwanese Embassy.
The financial assistance will be used to purchase 100 computers and the Computer Assisted Learning Solution software.
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