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It is a major youth conference that brings high school and tertiary level students to discuss issues affecting them. There were also panelists who presented academic papers on themes like financial and economic inclusion of youth, school based response to violence among other topics. The Acting UWI head told us more:

Dr. Sharmayne Saunders, Acting Head, U.W.I.
"Every 2 years our university is mandated to host a Belize country conference and the focus is usually on research, academic papers and research conducted on Belize and about Belize. So what we did we put out a call for papers early January and we invited persons to submit papers around the theme and the theme for this year is "Youth and Security: Assessing Risks, Mitigating Vulnerabilities, and Improving Wellbeing." We had a local organizing committee setup and they were engaged in selecting topical areas under the theme. In fact they selected the theme and I want to mention that those persons are all youths in Belize and as a result of that we have 4 broad themes and you make your submission for your academic paper. We also were encourage by work being done by a lot of organizations that deal with youth, so they were invited to present in plenary sessions as well and so today and tomorrow that's the work you're seeing."

"Academic papers and research conducted on Belize, about Belize around the theme of youth and we also ensure that we invited youths, so the sessions were officiated and organized by youths for youths."

The conference continues tomorrow at the Mexico Sporting Complex next to the Marion Jones Complex.