Currently in Belize there are more animal shelters on the island of San Pedro than there are women’s shelter’s in the entire country.  In fact there are only a total of eight rooms available to abused women seeking refugee from their attackers.  When Tim Tam asked the director of ones of those homes, a place called Mary with Open Doors, how The Word at Work could best support them, her immediate answer was: “training.” 

After thinking and praying through the idea, Tim quickly realized that instead of simply providing training on domestic violence and abuse to those at Mary with Open Doors, the training could be made available to anyone in the country who wanted it.  This dream became a reality when the Belize Natural Energy Charitable Trust agreed to underwrite the cost for the workshop and when Joanne Obrien, the co-founder of Direct Abundance, agreed to come and teach the workshop.  All the pieces were coming together to make this a powerful event.

The event was held at Banana Bank Lodge in Belmopan on January 22-24 and drew people from all over Belize. The workshop was a mixture of teaching, small group break out sessions, hearing a survivor’s testimony, and discussion.  This was the first of many workshops which Joanne Obrien is now repeating through the country of Belize.

There were participants there from the domestic violence unit of the police department, staff from the Belize Central prison, and a wide range of organizations including Mary with Open Doors, the Belize Family Life Association, Youth Enrichment Services, and Alliance Against AIDS, among several others. 

The night before the workshop began a woman was killed by her husband in the Orange Walk distract of Belize in an act of domestic violence.  Her death served as a somber reminder as to why we were gathered together and the importance of uniting together against abuse.  One of the highlights of the workshop was the opportunity for individuals from different organizations and regions being able to network.  Domestic violence is a problem of epic proportion in Belize. At the beginning of the workshop there was very little hope present as participants described the challenges they face on a daily basis due to domestic violence.  As they realized that there were other organizations fighting the same battles with them, hope began to grow throughout our time at Banana Bank. 

This was only the first step – there is still much work that needs to be done.  There need to be at least four more women’s shelter’s built in Belize. There needs to be an annual gathering for these organizations to come back and keep building relationships, and in the time in-between there needs to be a system that helps them stay connected and in communication with one another.  Most of all we just need to pray.  We need to pray for systematic changes, for resources to build shelters, and for people to lead the necessary changes.  God is moving and it was a gift to be at the workshop and see what the Lord is doing in Belize.