Southside Belize City learn to make drums

Posted: Wednesday, September 14, 2016. 1:05 p.m. CST.

By BBN Staff: The executing agency for the Youth and Community Transformation (YCT) Project through the ministry of Human Development, Social transformation and Poverty Alleviation, will be hosting a closing ceremony for the drum making classes today at 4:30 pm at the Larubeya Drum School, 7173 Ceasar Ridge Road, Belize City.

This ceremony is in culmination of a three week class that had the participation of 12 youths from the Port Loyola and Lake Independence areas. These young people now have the skills to make their own drums. This is the second cohort of youths who have benefitted from this project.

These classes were facilitated by Larubeya Drum School. The YCT Project partnered with the Yabra Community Resource Center (Community Policing Unit) to implement the drum making classes as an expansion of the Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) programme.

The second phase of the programme is having participants learn to play the drum.

The objective is to reduce vulnerability of children and youth to crime and gang membership in the Collet, Lake Independence, Pickstock and Port Loyola divisions of Belize City.  This is being achieved by providing services to enhance literacy, adaptive life skills and expressive arts and sports skills, support conflict mediation and improve inter-linkages and the sharing of best practices among participating agencies working within these communities.

The Government of Belize is financing this project through a loan facility from the Caribbean Development Bank.

The Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) youth component of the Youth and Community Transformation Project is being done in partnership with Yabra Community Policing Unit. It targets children in the upper primary and high school levels and has 13 sessions which are delivered in the classroom once per week by a trained police officer.

The expansion of the program, which includes opportunities for involvement in sports and expressive arts activities helps to enhance the youth social skills, gives youths alternatives to gang involvement and adding structure to the evening hours and summer months, thus increasing their opportunities for social, cognitive and interpersonal growth.

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