My Journey to VOF

I grew up in a mostly-single parent household in my tiny country of Belize, Central America. During my childhood, my time was split between my main home, and most-populated district, Belize City, and further north with my grandmother in Corozal. Being the eldest of six children, I had a lot of responsibilities early in life, helping to take care of my siblings and helping my mom around the home as needed. I wouldn’t consider us poor… we had enough to eat, shelter, and clothing, but we were definitely nowhere close to being rich! The sense of responsibility that I was given as a young child has influenced many of the decisions I’ve made in my life and today that sense of responsibility is still very much ingrained within me. My family was or is in no way perfect and growing up my mom and I had a lot of issues, however, my sense of responsibility for my siblings has nonetheless fostered a fierce protectiveness and appreciation of family. Within my self, it has acted as a motivation to continue my education to make my life better and to do what I can to make my country better.

The first steps on my social path were made while I was at Junior College working part-time as an assistant to the counsellor and decided to become a peer helper. Just as I was about to graduate, she recruited a bunch of us as volunteers for a newly form HIV/AIDS organization and since then my life has been centred on social issues and NGOs. Not long after a stint as an HIV/STI Educator I decided to go back to school, finally settling on social work, which unbeknownst to me, I was already heavily involved. I will complete my Bachelor’s degree in December and my intention is to pursue my Masters next year in Social Policy as this area is much needed in my country.

My career path as a social worker is in line with my goal to make myself and my country better; as it my decision to pursue the Voices of Our Future application. I learnt about WorldPulse through an email from a friend in the civil service field and thought that with my background as a former television reporter and copy editor, as well as my future as a social worker, it would be quite a perfect fit. I am a firm believer in self-improvement and when my time allows me, I take courses and attend workshops that I know can increase not only my academic skills and knowledge, but also my grasp on humanity. That was what I took into consideration when deciding whether I would apply for the VOF and thought there was no way that I could past up the opportunity to learn from others around the world!