With the change of administration in Washington, U.S. Ambassador Robert
Dieter will be leaving office, but before he does, he's got some money
to give away. Today the Embassy handed out cheques totalling fifty two thousand
dollars to bolster HIV awareness projects. It's part of the Caribbean
Ambassadors' HIV Prevention Programme where the Embassy receives a number
of applications annually requesting support for to address issues like prevention,
stigma and discrimination. In 2008 four recipients were awarded. The Belize
Red Cross, Equity House, the Family Life Education Unit in the Ministry of Education
and the Young Women's Christian Association. 7NEWS caught up with the
awardees and the Ambassador following the short ceremony held today at the YWCA.
Robert Dieter, U.S. Ambassador to Belize
"In the Caribbean there is a special program for Ambassadors
to make small grant awards to local grassroots community organizations that
are not likely to receive funding from other sources and so today's is
the fifth of these ceremonies. The money is intended to get out the message
of to get tested, to know your status, to know your partner's status,
and to work towards prevention. In addition, it is to promote messages of anti-stigma
and discrimination because stigma and discrimination is the largest barrier
to people getting tested."
Tashera Swift, Red Cross
"The money that we receive through the US Ambassador Fund will help
us to further create an awareness and produce messages on bags that we think
young people will be able to draw their attention or might captivate young persons.
The message focuses again on reducing stigma and discrimination."
Patricia Uhlir, Equity House
"Equity House is a healthcare center and we work with any healthcare
needs from people from Sittee River, Hopkins Village, and anyone who comes in.
Our plans for the money is to educate all and anyone who comes in for HIV and
Aids prevention."
Sonia Linares, YWCA
"For these program what we will do is to hold a forum for young women
because we feel that there is a need to sensitize our young women more. We know
they have some information but how they are taking that information and using
it in their daily lives is another matter and so we will try to come up with
an innovative way of holding a forum that will give the young people the message
so that they can use the information in a positive way."
Robert Dieter,
"We look for groups that have particularly innovative ideas and also
groups that are not likely to get funding from other sources and also groups
that we've worked with in the past who've demonstrated their effectiveness
in getting the message out."
Nelson Longsworth, Ministry of Education
"We have been running this competition, it is a poster competition,
yearly and in fact this is the third year we're having this initiative
where the focus is for the young adolescents to be able to express themselves
through a poster, to educate their peers in reducing stigma and discrimination,
and also for prevention of HIV infection. The posters are then judged by their
peers so we would have days when other schools would interact with the posters
and they vote and they select what the posters they like the best and at the
same time obviously they are gaining a lot of the messages that are being sent
through the posters. This is a very interactive way of engaging the young people."
The Family Life Education Unit in the Ministry of Education received
the largest amount of twenty thousand, two hundred and fifty dollars. Since
the programme started the U.S. Embassy in Belize has funded thirty nine initiatives
totalling two hundred and sixty nine thousand dollars.
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