Belize City Council honors eleven ‘Sheroes’ in special ceremony

Posted: Tuesday, March 29, 2022. 5:23 pm CST.

“So amazing how this world was made/I wonder if GOD is a woman/The gift of life astounds me to this day/I give it up for the woman…” (Shaggy, “Strength of a Woman”)

By Aaron Humes: From the hallowed halls of the Senate to the hardscrabble roads of their neighborhoods and communities, the eleven women honored today by the Belize City Council are recognized as having left their mark.

As described by Councilor responsible for the portfolio of women and children Natasha Pipersburgh, “We basically looked within our community…many of these individuals selected today were individuals who in some way or form has contributed to some genre in regards to dealing with women and helping them to be more established, and basically molding them to be someone of society.”

Among the honorees is President of the Senate and community planner Carolyn Trench-Sandiford; educators, businesswomen and professionals as well as community activists.

In order of recognition, they are: “Miss Grace” Flowers, community activist; Nilza Acosta, constituency campaigner and organizer; Julian Young-Mortis, youth mentor; Lula Bennett, fashion and jewelry designer; Lorraine Henry, nurse; Sherrie Reneau, community activist; Pastor Ruth Pipersburgh, clergy; Marilyn Gentle-Garvin, former CitCo auditor and presently head of a non-governmental organization; Carolyn Trench-Sandiford, planner and politician; Erica Howard, community activist; and Brendalee Enriquez, educator.

They were linked, according to Mayor Bernard Wagner, by the “selflessness” that he regularly saw as a banker, where women would come for loans to help others, whether to cover costs for hospital, home making and education.

“While we can be easily consumed by all the negatives that we have to undo in order to foster equality, I am also a firm believer in focusing on the positive, highlighting the great work that our ‘wonder women’ have been doing and their accomplishments fulfilled,” the Mayor told his audience, adding that today’s ceremony was not about what politicians do to help women, but what they are doing to help themselves.

Thus, each awardee selected a charity to receive a special contribution of $250 from the Council in order to ‘pay it forward.’

The event, brainchild of former councilor Candice Pitts in 2019, was on hold due to the pandemic for the last two years, but the Mayor indicated it would be held annually going forward.

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