Animation Boot Camp 2024: Empowering Women in STEAM

The Animation Boot Camp 2024, an innovative program focused on empowering women in STEAM, has been launched with backing from the Taiwan Technical Mission. With the support of the Investment Policy and Compliance Unit in the Prime Minister’s Office, the event is a part of a broader initiative to enhance female participation. Jaleeza Roberts reports.

Jaleeza Roberts, Love News: In an exciting move to promote gender equality and innovation, Belizean women are learning animation at the Animation Bootcamp 2024. The project seeks to empower women in science, technology, engineering, art and math, STEAM, by equipping them with the skills needed to excel in the growing field of animation. The introductory course offers a hand-on experience with the latest animation technologies and software. National Women’s Commission Chair, Thea Garcia Ramirez, says the focus is to provide women a money-making asset. 

Thea Garcia Ramirez, Chair, National Women’s Commission: “Animation is a very hot commodity right now in Belize. I am told that maybe a 30-second production costs upwards of $3,000. So it is certainly a good skill to have, a good skill to hone. And so this is an introductory course. So young women and girls can get into it and hopefully we might be able to have a second course that’s a little bit more to strengthen their skills.”

Jaleeza Roberts, Love News: Lincoln Blake, director of the Investment Policy and Compliance Unit at the Ministry of Investment, underscored that promoting the investment in these initiatives contributes to the broader orange economy. 

Lincoln Blake, Director of Investment Policy Compliances, UMOI: “And one of the priority sectors is the orange economy which has a lot of potential in Belize and in which we are ensuring that we have enough skill so as to develop new activities to stimulate, because the orange economy is the creative economy. And according to the, like I mentioned, according to UNTAD, there are about 50 million people working within the sector around the globe, and most of them are young people. And those are the ones that we want to stimulate, because we do feel that there’s a significant amount of talent in Belize and if we want to ensure that talent is utilized and participates in the growth of the economy, we need to give them some skill and the tools for them to flourish.”

Jaleeza Roberts, Love News: The venture is funded by the Taiwan Technical Mission and supported by various governmental and creative entities. Irene Wu, secretary of the Embassy of the Republic of China Taiwan, spoke about the importance of the partnership between Belize and Taiwan in executing shared goals. 

Irene Wu, Third Secretary of Taiwan Embassy: “The Women’s Empowerment Project between our two countries has run for over two and a half years and we have implemented various vocational trainings, business incubation programs across Belize to support women to become more self-sufficient and to be able to participate in the economy. So our hope is to foster more inclusive growth in Belize.”

Jaleeza Roberts, Love News: The program is designed not only to teach technical skills but to inspire confidence in women. Garcia Ramirez stressed that she hopes that this will have a long-lasting impact on the women working to excel in technology and innovation. 

Thea Garcia Ramirez, Chair, National Women’s Commission: “They have partnered with us in the first instance to train 90 women. This is also a partnership with the Ministry of Investment. And so we’re all pooling resources and getting women trained. So if you have 90 more women that are interested and trained in something like this then obviously you start to open doors and it’s something that I at least I guess in Corozal women weren’t really thinking about. You know there’s a lot of traditional training going on and I don’t mean to say that that’s those aren’t valid trainings, but not everybody.”

Jaleeza Roberts, Love News: Ninety women from the Corozal, Orange Walk and Belize districts have participated in the animation boot camp. Jaleeza Roberts, Love News.