49 youths received awards for the "Du Di Rait Ting" Program today. Throughout the school year, each police formation, with the help of school counsellors and teachers, chose a student who has shown true resilience and determination. A committee then reviews all the submissions and selects the students who stand out the most. The awards ceremony was held at Old Belize. Here is more about the program and about these stellar kids.
Cpl. Jason Jones - Program Coordinator, Du Di Rait Ting Program
"Today was the culmination of a yearlong exercise where we awarded monthly submissions and today was the national awards ceremony. We awarded not only the monthly submissions but also the top 10 students from across the country."
Reporter
"Talk to us about the program, the importance of it?"
Cpl. Jason Jones
"The importance of Du Di Rait Ting is a community and police based program where we award students for doing the right thing again a lot of times people have struggles in life but they got recognized for the troubles and tribulations they have overcome so the program is one way of the police department telling them that we understand what you have gone through but we want to applaud you and reward you for doing the right thing."
Sonia Gutierrez - Recipient
"I started to have problems with my family and difficulties but along the way I still didn't let my problems, family issues get in the way of my education. I still topped my primary school, became the valedictorian of my primary school so continued high school at EP. York, I thought that EP. York would be the school to challenge me and it was. I topped EP. York in my class in first form, here is second form and here I am today."
Luis Escobar - Recipient
"I stop school for 5 years, during those 5 years I was out of school I was struggling about life, I was getting aware of what is life out there and then I notice that its strong and its difficult to be out there without studies right, so I start to like find something to do for me. I started as a barbershop, also I started tattooing and then after getting some tattoos and society started to discriminate against me, started to judge me, starting to say that I'm a bad person by the way I look and stuff like that. So after that I'm a person that is against bullying and criticism, so I get back to study, I find to struggle how to get back to studies and then I started to do volunteer work in hospital with ministry of health, showing the youths that it's never too late to get back to school. What I can say is that to be someone in life you have to have the initiative, it doesn't matter what struggles you go through in life but you have to have the initiative to become someone in life."
11 youths out of the 49 got special awards for their remarkable testimonies. The two we interviewed were part of that special awards group. After these kids are awarded, the police remain in contact with them to make sure they stay on the right track.
Email
Print