Drawing Inspiration….Giving Hope

Carolyn Trench-Sandiford-Party Chairman

The month of March is designated as Women’s Month, and the theme for this year is “Celebrating Achievements, Overcoming Challenges and Breaking Barriers” As the Chairman of the PUP, and being a woman, I found it a personal responsibility to use this article to acknowledge and honour all the women of the PUP, those who came before me, those who are with us now, and those who are sure to join the cause after me, because they believed in the People’s United Party, and the peaceful constructive revolution. And because they believed, they have been able to enrich the lives of many of our people.

It is perhaps fitting therefore, that we pay tribute first and foremost to Belize’s pre-eminent   woman politician, trailblazer, PUP Member of Parliament and minister, the Honourable Gwendolyn Lizarraga, known to all as Madam Liz, who in 1959-60’s, established the United Women’s Group to mobilize women to eradicate poor living conditions in housing and urban communities, through cooperative and community action.

As Minister of Housing and Education, she was instrumental in empowering women through the issuance of leases for land and the construction of low income housing.  At its greatest moment, it was 1500 strong and counting. They outgrew Independence Hall, and had to go to Riverside Hall for meetings. They were a formidable force to reckon with, and nothing and no one could have stopped them.

As the story goes, whenever she went to the Lands Department at the then Paslow Building to apply for lands for the members of the UWG, she and her women were turned away, and told no land was available. She was not deterred. She took her women, a measuring tape, pieces of board and a hammer, into swamps and across the creeks, and started measuring lots, and placing markers with the names of women to designate them. She drew her own plan.

Later, she went to back to Lands Department with her women beside her, and asked for forms to fill out to apply for lands. When told there was no land, her response was simple, “Do not worry, dear, we already have our land. Here are the stamps to put on the application forms and the map of the lots. All you have to do is process it.” Today, this is the portion of the Collet Constituency, from Curassow to Elston Kerr Streets, and from North Creek to Gibnut Streets. Women owned all those lots.

Her approach to empowering women and families also extended to creating opportunities for children, who were denied access to education because of their socio-economic status, the children of the poor and the working class. Madam Liz knew that education was the vehicle to opportunities. When her request for land for public secondary schools was denied, because according to Public Works officials, no school building could be constructed on the site she identified for such purpose, because it would sink, she and her women went out once again into the swamps, this time with two-man hand saws, and started cutting the mangroves down.

The men from Public Works later joined in, and took over, and this is why today, thousands of children have access to secondary education from Edward P. Yorke and Gwen Lizarraga High School, formerly Belize Junior Secondary Schools #1 & #2 for children from marginalized communities. Madam Liz exemplifies the PUP woman. Strong. Gutsy. Assertive. Resolute. Tenacious. Feisty. Passionate and Compassionate. Unselfish. She overcame challenges and broke down barriers. Her achievements are incomparable. She was about serving the people.

And this is why often times, when the going gets tough and it appears that all is lost, when I am frustrated, discouraged, and see no hope at the end of the tunnel, I go to Ms. Birdie on Pelican Street, a beneficiary of Madam Liz’s work, and talk about Madam Liz. And each time, it is as if her spirit knows I am calling on her, to draw on her strength, her wisdom, her resilience, her tenacity, and I immediately become energized, spirited, and battle ready again, to face whatever is coming my way, because I know she is with me.

For only if I do so, if all of us do so, can we take our rightful place as partners with our men in the People’s United Party, in creating the NEW Belize, to bring to all Belizeans a better life and a just share of the national wealth. So in this month, let us honour Madam Liz and all our women. Let us revere them, and let them serve as an inspiration to all of us, so we may one day be there to give hope to others. Only so shall the revolution continue.. .

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