Female Leadership Community at Ocean Academy in Caye Caulker, Belize


The Ocean Academy Female Leadership community (FLC) is an elective enrichment program that empowers young women to strengthen their leadership skills, while experiencing growth and identity development through the power of sharing, teamwork, and earned success.

Encourage them in becoming a strong, fierce, and empowered woman! A leader for their community! Working with other young women to create a unique community entirely dedicated to their needs.

The FLC is conducted around 3 units: ignite, educate and agitate.

Ignite: Create community through safe space creation, sharing of stories, empowerment rituals, and sistahood.

Educate: Empower young peoples’ minds through the exploration of the unique issues affecting young women today through reading, researching, and journaling.

Agitate: Become empowered leaders through the development of a community-based action project that will ignite and educate other youth and/or the larger community, and share the values of the FLC community.

13.12.12

Kyra's thoughts

© by Stephanie Sinclair


Kyra worked with this text and photo to reflect on the child brides.

‘When Sunil's parents arranged for her marriage at age 11, she threatened to report them to police in Rajasthan, India. They relented, and Sunil, now 13, stayed in school. "Studying will give her an edge against others," her mother now says.’

Too young to Wed is a story about young girls in arranged marriages when they are very young. I can’t even imagine getting married at this age especially to someone three times older then me. In India and Yemen they force young girls to marry and have sex when they start going through puberty.
I feel stories like this affect me because I’m a young women and it hurts to hear that stories like are going on in many parts of the world. All in all I hope those illegal marriages come to a stop soon and I wish the best for all the girls who are forced to marry and that justice will reveal for them.

The story I read on Sunil’s life is very sad to hear. In a way I feel like her character about standing up is related to my own character. I always stand up for myself and help others. Sunil did the right thing by threatening her parents to report them to the police.
To learn about these stories really inspires how different my life is in Belize.