BELIZE - AUDREY MATURA SHEPHERD, a Belize role model and heroine.

   Audry Matura Shepherd writes a poignant story, of the challenges she faced in getting an education past primary school in Belize.  Back then, there were no civil servants had even a Bachelors Degree.  The most available, were people with High School Degrees.  It was a very moving story, of a time I remember. The culture of old British Honduras, and then Self Government was certainly against girls getting higher education.  Even today, there are fewer than 8000 students out of 330,000 people who are getting tertiary education in Belize. Times are changing though.  Even in Canada, it was not until the 1960's in Ontario, Canada, when teachers of HIGH SCHOOLS had to get their Bacherlor's Degree in a few years, or lose their teaching jobs.
  Audry tells of how resistant her domineering father was, to her going past primary school.  The attitude then, was girls should get married young and rely on their husbands to support them, in Belize.  Contrast that to Malala, the Pakistani girl, shot in the head by TALIBAN KILL CRAZY ASSASSINS in Pakistan.  Her father ran a girls school, but since she has been shot, he has been forced by the KILL CRAZY TALIBAN criminals to close down the school and is likely to have his whole family killed by assassination anarchists murderous killing squads, under the direction of a preacher, a Mullah, they call these vicious thugs.
  Audry tells of how she was forced to leave home, and live with an Aunt to go to High School.  The school provided her with WORK SCHOLARSHIPS.  My own daughters did the same for work scholarships.  The financial cost of High School, was way beyond that financial capability, of a fisherman, living on an island subsistance lifestyle.
  Audry went on to get a LAW Degree, I believe?  She is an activist for a better government system and a better democracy and Belize the nation.  Someone, WE ALL are very proud of, in her generation.  Her story in the AMANDALA was a very moving and uplifting story, of a human girl determination, to go her own way and get an education.  Unfortunately, I could not find the article online, for the Amandala website, or I would have put it on my BLOG.  It can be found in the Amandala newspaper, page 38, Oct. 21st., 2012.
  The world is changing and technology is changing it also.  Nowadays, it is the academics, girls included, who are having to get these hundreds of new degrees in newer fields, as we move ahead into the 21 st century.  The gap between boys is widening.  As males tend to be more physical orientated, while girls look to academic educational specialties to find income in the work place, as well as being a home mother for her children.  It is true, that the Mennonites, have shown us a religious culture that only goes to primary school level, can introduce development, risk capital, innovation, and the teach yourself attitude, in almost any type of agriculture or manufacturing specialty. Their females though face the same problem Audry had, when she was a young girl.  Times are changing, cultures change, and hopefully all the restrictions placed on a division of the sexes will shrink, as religion is shoved out of education domination in Belize. The new century is demanding it.

   It is not education so much!  The Taliban are SLAVERS from feudal times.  They still hold their females as slaves.  They even kidnap girls to be slaves.  The Northern part of Pakistan is a SLAVE territory.