Our Story
Heritage Education Network Belize came to be in the midst of the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic. We are a group of four women who have worked in archaeology and the Belizean heritage industries for years. Our initial goal was to support Belizean tourism professionals, cultural and heritage organisations, small business owners, artists and artisans currently coping with the impact of COVID-19. We aimed to ensure the continuation of cultural, heritage and creative work in Belize, by supporting those who needed it to stay afloat or to start over later on.
The project started as a collaboration between Fajina Archaeology Outreach and Craboo Creative Travel to create regular webinars, live sessions, educational videos and other materials with professionals. We included topics on financial management in a crisis situation, tourism marketing during the travel bans, where can you find financial or practical support, how can you transition your skills to get remote work online and educational opportunities for tour guides to advance their knowledge at home and prepare to get back to work.
In the following weeks, organisations were forced to cancel events, restaurant and bars had to shut their doors to business, tour operators suffered from wave-like cancellations and people in the creative field had started to feel the negative impacts to their livelihoods.
This crisis affects the tourism industry but its broader implications include the community and the economy of Belize as a whole. Thousands employed at community businesses, in tourism and other creative fields have lost their jobs or cannot continue their projects. The disappearance of artistic, cultural and creative work can have major social and cultural impacts on Belize and the populations’ wellbeing.
We encourage everyone to join our initiative and let us create a network where we can support each other by sharing knowledge.
Don’t forget, we are in this together, so we will get out of this together!