Manuela Lue is Regional Commonwealth Youth Worker for 2016

Manuela Lue

Manuela Lue, one of three directors of the Energy for Life Program, a non-profit company run in conjunction with Belize Natural Energy Limited, has been shortlisted as regional finalist for the Caribbean and the Americas in the 2016 Commonwealth Youth Worker Awards. Lue will be travelling to London, England, on November fifth to participate in the final award ceremony being held as part of Commonwealth Youth Work Week from November seventh to thirteenth and share her experience. Lue spoke with News Five this evening and humbly expressed her admiration for those she calls “the real heroes”: the many students that the Program mentors and that have won awards of their own.

On the Phone: Manuela Lue, Regional Finalist, Commonwealth Youth Worker Award

“I am very humbled to receive this award; actually it was a surprise, because I am the one that usually nominates all the students from the B.N.E.’s Energy for Life Program to get awards, so I was very surprised that I was nominated for this award. But it’s a remarkable achievement, and the real heroes are these students; because when you understand the living conditions that they come from, and how hard it is for them to travel from where they live to where they have to go, I mean it is just remarkable that they are overcoming challenges and obstacles that are just amazing so the real heroes of this award are actually the students. We have to thank all the staff at B.N.E. for contributing financially as well, because without their support we wouldn’t be able to have this program going.”

Reporter

“So are you looking forward to going to London and what do you expect out of that?”

On the Phone: Manuela Lue

“Yes, I will be traveling to London on Saturday and the purpose of the trip is to engage with other youth workers around the world, around the Commonwealth, to find out how they are running their youth projects so that we can collaborate and learn from each other about the best practices and the styles of helping young people in order to grow; so basically its going to be a lot of presentations, meetings, workshops, and the award ceremony is going to be in London on November tenth.”

Reporter

“And looking forward, what do you hope for the program?”

On the Phone: Manuela Lue

“What do we hope? Well, what I hope to achieve is to come back with greater networks, more ideas about how to grow the program and make it better; how to make it bigger and how to strengthen the existing capacity that we currently have.”

The Energy for Life Program draws mentors from among B.N.E.’s workers to minister to children from the Cayo area who are attending school and otherwise engaged in meaningful activities. Currently, students are participating in an arts and culture project where they interview elderly persons from the area about the shift in culture over the decades.