Young people represent about fifty-four percent of our population and is the age group most vulnerable to crime and violence. And so as a part of Youth Week, Youth for the Future held an anti- crime and violence billboard competition among the city's high schools.
The idea is to have the youth portray their interpretations through visual art. Christine Smith, Youth for the Future's Director told us that while the activity was geared at raising awareness among young people it will also by extension send out a message to the wider community.
The idea behind it is to get schools as a community to take a stands on violence and have their students participate, come up, use the theme for international year of youth "Our year, our voice" and given the situation as it relates to violence in Belize to come up with a positive message for our community.
Andrea Polanco
"Having seen all the billboards from across the schools in the city, what would you say is the dominant interpretation of a stand against violence and crime portrayed by the students?"
"The students are saying that right now Belize as it is dark but there is hope for us, but it means that as a community we must unite, get beyond colors, get beyond races but just unite as a country Belize and once we are able to do that we will be able to see the future moving from darkness into a more positive light."
Andrea Polanco
"In terms of the creativity, the concepts that were used what was the quality of the work that the students put out in capturing this theme?"
"The work was exceptional, our students are extremely talented and we don't give them enough credit and this is something I hope that radio and TV stations will do; they depict the positive that our young people are doing. To come up with the concepts that they came up with, the concepts are from the youths themselves, it shows that they are aware of what's going on in Belize and they want to see better because they know that 5-10 years down the road they are the one who will be in a position to do something, they are affected right now and they want to ensure that there is a Belize left for them to do something about."
Student
"The billboard is simply depicting the way we are living and at the end we have the way we are presently living and at the left corner we have the piece the life that we want to live. The theme is "Our Year, Our Voice, Speak out JLHS" that's was the theme we came up with because we the students of Gwen Liz living in the Southside of Belize have heard a lot of things about Belize and we want to put a stop to it and us as young children we wrote on it speak out and also it has enslave by colors because most of the crimes are gang related and thy are brought up by colors; crips and bloods."
Student
"Well the billboard is basically sends out a message for the youths to stop the violence. To try to put their thinking in a more positive ways and come up with something like this billboard, just to show them that they can do more than what they think they can do than to rob people and to come up with something better like this billboard."
Andrea Polanco
"What role you played in working on this billboard?"
Student
"My role that I played was basically painting and the reason why I chose to paint is because I want to show my talent and I think for everyone that is out there that doesn't want to really show it this is what they can do and then to be on the streets."
Andrea Polanco
"Explain to me what are some of these graphics saying?"
Student
"Well from pistols to pencils is saying put down the gun and get an education. as you can see there are the hands; the first hand is showing a gun sign and the 2 hands are saying like they are defending, the concept is can you argue with a gun? I don't think so and the hand over the mouth that is crying; thats shows that silence leads to violence, if you don't come out and say what you see then how can you capture the bad person."
Student
"It just to make people like students get off the streets and for them to stop the violence because usually nowadays its the youths who are always killing out each other and thing like that and then the "Our Year, Our Voice" is just; you know how you always see graffiti all over the places, like you can actually use that in a positive way."
Student
"The yellow marking on the ground simply signifies a dead body that is mark out. The 3 silhouette persons now states a young child developing into a teen, developing into a working adult. We didn't try to put death as a factor in the theme but it is reality."
Andrea Polanco
"I see the billboard have "our Year, Our Voice, education, knowledge, empowerment, life skills" tell me how did you all put that together in constructing your billboard?"
Student
"Well as you can see it is the make that is growing up, we chose the male because as you can see statistics shows that our male is infected the most by violence so what we do is to put a male person growing up and the line like my friend said is a reputation of someone dead so rather that putting the dead person we put the lining to show that you could be here or growing up into a future and we put the person like in a state of going to school and getting a better education because yes education does empowers a nation especially with our youths today."
Tomorrow, the top three winners of the eleven high schools that participated will be announced.
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