by Charles Gladden
BELIZE CITY, Wed. Oct. 4, 2023
Through the collaboration of the Belize Assembly for Persons with Diverse Abilities (BAPDA) and ITVET in Belize City, scholarships will be granted to persons with diverse abilities who are interested in attending the vocational institution.
“We want to ensure that every Belizean has an opportunity to do a course and become skilled. Whenever a person gets skilled in any program that they want, we reduce at least one social problem in the community,” said General Manager of ITVET Belize City, Reuel Black.
“One of the courses they’re offering is computer-aided drafting, and they have other courses as well, which has to do with, for example, hair braiding. They have nail technicians; they have even food preparation courses that a person who’s disabled in a wheelchair [can] take. We are trying to get [people] interested in the main one, being the one with the computer-aided drafting, because it’s easy to do. Any person in a wheelchair or otherwise disabled can do it from their home. It’s something that is sought after readily by people in the construction industry, hotels, and even individuals wanting to build a home,” said Kay Raymark Theus, president of BAPDA.
The initial scholarship will be supporting 10 recipients for a 10-month period and is a partial scholarship; however, BAPDA, in anticipation of the rollout of additional scholarships, is seeking interested persons with diverse abilities to enroll in the wide variety of programs being offered by ITVET.
Theus further mentioned that persons with diverse abilities are often left behind and might not be able to provide for themselves. However, he believes that when such persons are educated, they [can] seek out employment and gain their independence.
“The more independence a person has, the more they will strive to do and to be, and I think by educating them, that person to have something that’s a viable option for employment, for work, or to open their own small business, is important and critical in Belize at this time,” he said.