Opal
Meet Opal: a Belizean-born change-maker.
A fiery Virgo whose life's work started with a single moment of recognition. Born and raised in Belize, she moved to the U.S. at age 11, but never lost her habit of watching closely and thinking deeply. Years later, a stranger congratulated her because Belize's team had just won the World Robotics Competition in Geneva, Switzerland. She realized one of her country's most underestimated assets wasn't its resources. It was its young thinkers. And she asked herself: what can I do?
Opal and her co-founder, Rushad Rucker-Tripp, alongside Board members Eva Gallego - Foreman and Clyde Gillett founded the Foundation of American Belizeans (FABZN), dedicated to literacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership training for Belizeans and neighboring communities worldwide.
Her drive to get resources into the hands of eager young readers, no matter which side of town they lived on, led her to the Dorothy Irene Height Global Leadership Academy, hosted by the International Black Women's Public Policy Institute, where she identified an opportunity to serve her country through their reading room initiative. Opal, along with classmates ; Valerie Walker, Breanna Smith, Tishieka Curtis-Pugh, and Tiffany James, took it on, and Reading Room Belize was launched. The renovated Wesley reading room opened in January 2023, and that work was honored years later with new partners and an extended vision, at the Literacy Center Plaque Dedication Ceremony at Wesley Upper School in Belize City. The delighted students sang, prayed and read their own essays on what literacy means to them. Their words made every hour of effort worth it.
A mission needs a way to sustain itself, and that search led Opal to Eden SDA Primary School in Santa Elena, through the Belize Literacy Enhancement Project, a project of FABZN in partnership with The Links, Incorporated, Western Area. Eden needed a full renovation, and the community needed it badly. Autistic children nearby had nowhere to regulate, learn, or simply belong alongside their peers. Opal believes every child deserves an education built on equity and inclusion. Eden is the first school in Belize to integrate autistic students into its programs with adequate support, and that is why FABZN wants to give them a proper facility: a space where students can regulate before they reintegrate into the classroom.
She knows the community's greatest resource isn't money. It's the parents and teachers : vulnerable, present, and showing up for their children every day. Opal sees exactly what she wants for the Reading Room's future: a big screen, a caring staff, proper materials, and parents engaged at every level.
Standing alongside Opal to support the initiative are Dr. Thelma Day, President of The Links, Incorporated, Western Area; Sherlett Hendy-Newbill, Board Member of the Los Angeles Unified School District; and, from FABZN, Eva Gallegos Foreman, Secretary, and Clyde Gillett, Director of Photography.
A former dancer, model, and beauty queen turned entrepreneur, she's now spearheading a fundraiser, dinner, and cultural exchange with The Links, Incorporated, Western Area to raise funds to build the newest Eden Center Literacy and Sensory Space. Her company, Opal's Glow Self Care, makes organic, Belize-sourced skincare products for men and women, because she believes self-care isn't extra. It's essential.
I'm honored to be supporting Opal, a friend who is beautiful on the inside and out, along with the incredible partnerships through FABZN, and The Links, Incorporated, Western Area on this cause.