Nation Builders

MS ELIA ADELA CANSINO
Elizabeth Pridgeon
Ms Elia Cansino (nee Godoy) has spent decades striving towards helping people in her local community of Orange Walk.  She has actively involved in ministerial activities of the church, community activism on behalf of women’s rights, and latterly she has represented the judicial system as both a Justice of the Peace and a Commissioner of the Supreme Court.  Her participation in communal affairs is admirable, and as she looks to ‘hand over’ her responsibilities to younger generations, it is hoped that young Orangewalkaños may be inspired to follow in her footsteps.
Ms Elia was educated at the town’s La Inmaculada Primary School, growing up alongside her three siblings and six half-siblings, under the guidance of her grandmother, Ms Priscilla Alpuche.  Due to financial restraints on the household, the opportunity for Ms Elia to further her education at high school was unavailable to her – until, that is, she acquired a scholarship to attend classes at a Guatemalan high school.  After a year in Guatemala, Ms Elia returned to Orange Walk and found employment with staff of the newly-established Tate&Lyle company, offering domestic services to the foreign employees of the company.  After a couple of years at this, her charm and charisma so impressed her employer, Mr Bill Wildman, that his family offered her the opportunity to continue her schooling in Canada, which she gratefully accepted and accompanied them to Canada to enrol in a further two years of classes.  When she returned to Orange Walk, she resumed work with the sugar industry, this time as a book-keeper for BSI.
Shortly afterwards, she met and married her husband, and was quickly consumed with domestic responsibilities of raising four children.  It was during this time that she began attending the Bible Chapel in town, and quickly she assumed responsibilities as President of the Chapel’s Ladies’ Group .  This involved the comprehensive organisation of rotas to visit hospital patients, care for the sick and elderly, and support those whose families were absent or abroad.  She also attended conferences throughout the country with similar women’s groups, all of which motivated the creation of the WAV movement: Women Against Violence.  By the 1990s, Ms Elia’s campaigning with WAV had reached such a level that she was elected as Chairperson, receiving a certificate of appreciation in 1991 for her work with the movement as councillor.  This role involved a variety of tasks, including providing emotional support for abused women, and participating in court attendance initiatives designed to pressure magistrates into making constructive, just verdicts.  Ms Elia’s active support and determination, throughout times of trial and tribulations for many of her peers, were praised by her colleagues, and in 1992 she was chosen to represent Belize in Costa Rica at La Comision para la defensa de los derechos humanos en Centro America.
Soon after this, Ms Elia’s time became almost wholly consumed with the active role she took in the rearing of her grand children.  She did, however, manage to retain sufficient time to continue her role with the Church, which was crucial in the development of the Spanish aspect of her Church which, 17 years ago, was officially opened as Ministerio Luz Divina.  Throughout her service and dedication to the Church, Ms Elia considers the Lord’s workings to have been miraculous in her own life, and she continues to serve as Secretary of the Ministry (a role which involves far more than just paperwork as she is often required to fill in as teacher, cleaner and even preacher in the pastor’s absence!).
Ms Elia is now of the opinion that she, and her generation, have given all they can to the Ministry, and it is time to hand over to the younger generations who appear full of potential in aspects such as leadership, ideas and motivation.
She continues her work as one of the town’s JPs, however, and she also received the honour to be one of the handful of Commissioners of the Supreme Court in Orange Walk, and these two roles do not look likely to be ‘handed over’ to the younger generations just yet.
Despite a series of illnesses (including cancer), Ms Elia never let falter her devotion to her community and her Church, and even in times of crisis, she always maintained a professional approach to her duties to society.  There are few greater traits in human nature than to selflessly put others above oneself, and this is something that Ms Elia has demonstrated throughout her life, and continues to do so today with the concern she demonstrates for the future generations of Belizean society (including her family).  If women of this upcoming generation were half as much woman as Ms Elia, then the future looks bright for Belize and its nation builders in the future.

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