Janelle Chanona will be the new Senator representing the NGO community. The former journalist and current Vice President of OCEANA Belize replaces Osmany Salas who resigned at the end of February to pursue an appointment with the World Wildlife Fund.
So, today 31 NGO's chose between Dr. Sharmayne Saunders and Chanona. Chanona received 21 votes while Dr. Saunders received 10.
She will be sworn in later this month and spoke to us via Zoom today about her mission:
Janelle Chanona, Senator Designate
"The commitment that I've made to the membership and that I reiterate now is that the voice of the senator representing the NGO community will always be that of its membership and when I say membership, not just those formally working in the NGO sector, but all of those NGOs doing NGO work outside the official threshold of NGO work, because it has to be that the issues as you said wide-ranging do get that platform at the upper house and do get the attention they deserve and it's been incredible in the various committees and organizations and entities that I work alongside dealing with crime, dealing with women and children issues and just the whole gamut of social sector - that sometimes there are so much going on and yet it's not been spoken about in certain circles, so definitely that is a commitment that I have made personally to the membership that it would be inclusive, it will be comprehensive."
Chanona now becomes the 5th woman senator - and - with the president also a woman, makes it so that there are now 6 women in the upper chamber.
That's quite impressive - and regardless of how the election went, it would have been a woman - since both candidates were female. Chanona says, however, that they were not chosen based on their sex:
Janelle Chanona, Senator Designate
"I don't think any of us expected just on the virtue of being women. It's that we were asking the community to support the best person that was putting themselves forward so that the community could make a decision there. But I certainly was heartened by the fact that regardless of how the pendulum swung today that the senate would have gain additional female representation. I don't see where that has ever hurt in terms of having a female voice and representation in any circle in any quarters, so I am proud to be part of that number and as I spoke earlier, making sure that's real representation and not some tokenism or poster person, but making sure that will always be a voice amplifying the needs of others, because you know that when we lift up women, we lift up entire families."
The next house meeting is on Tuesday March 15th - and Chanona's first Senate meeting is expected to be a few days after that.
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