Candlelight Vigil Honors Five Women Brutally Murdered in October

Dozens of Belizean women turned out on Friday evening to light a candle, pray or simply to call the names of the five women murdered since the first one was found dead, dismembered and stuffed in a garbage bin on October 4. At the vigil was a candle lit table prepared with the photos of Shaniele Faber, Keyra Gentle, Angelita Briceno Magana, Shadia Magana and Delcea Flowers, the last woman murdered on October 24. Director of the Hope Resource Centre, Julian Mortis, told LOVE NEWS that the vigil provided a space for all Belizeans to show solidarity with the women who have been murdered.

Julian Mortis, Director HOPE Resource Center: “ We’re all on a journey and sometimes it could be very rough. It could be times when we don’t understand what’s taking place in our life. But we know without a shadow of a doubt when we join together as women, the fight gets easier. But if you keep hiding and you keep staying in the places where you’ve been abused, you will never be healed. You will never be delivered. So I’m asking the women them that are going through what they’re going to. There is help. The Hope Research Center is a place where you can come and you can find help. You can find hope in whatever situation that you’re in. And like I said before, if we don’t have the professional needs that you need, we will get you to those places where I believe you can get more help.”

Mortis said that while the event was for everyone a small group of committed women came out in solidarity. 

Julian Mortis, Director HOPE Resource Center : “The turnout is not as good as we wanted to be, but with God, all things are possible. If he allows us to have this crowd, then it’s because that’s what he wants. So the people out there that are celebrating Halloween, they missed out because the presence of God is here and we will be fighting. Like I said, we will continue to fight for this cause when it comes to domestic violence against our women and girls.”

And for women and girls to live free of violence, Mortis cautioned that it begins with women and girls taking control of their own lives.  

Julian Mortis, Director HOPE Resource Center : “And I know some of the women are in fear. A lot of women are very fearful of the relationship that they’re in. The fear that they have makes them stay where they are. But that’s when we, when we come together to encourage our women and give them that courage that they can step out and know that they don’t need to live like that.”