Gian Parham (BA in Theology, 2021) of Benque Viejo del Carmen, Belize, teaches adults and youth in two Catholic high schools and also serves as national coordinator of the Theology of the Body (TOB) teachers’ training program.
As national coordinator, Gian promotes the TOB program in all of Belize’s Catholic Schools. He has conducted workshops with all administrators and principals about the need for the TOB and conducts ongoing training sessions with school faculty and staff. TOB clubs are now being established at
Belizean high schools that will be led by trained youth leaders as well.
“Girls are learning that they are valuable and worth waiting for. They have
learned they deserve respect and true, authentic, sacrificial love because of
their God-given dignity,” he says. “The young men are realizing that the image
of manhood society is illustrating is a false one. They are learning that true
men must grow in virtue in order to die to self and protect the women around
them, first and foremost from themselves. Young men are being challenged
to grow in responsibility and to love in an authentic way.” He points out that
TOB is not just helping to reduce teenage pregnancies in Belize, but it is also helping to lower the abortion rate.
Gian has been married for 24 years and is blessed with two beautiful children. During the day, Gian teaches English Literature and TOB to seniors at Our Lady of Mount Carmel High School. At night, he teaches adults Computer Science and TOB at Saint Ignatius High School Evening Division.
“For me, teaching is not a job. It is a passion, a vocation, something I am
called to do,” Gian says, adding that he is truly blessed to share his God-given
gifts with both the teens and adult students he has come to love. “The joy that
comes from interacting with the young as they search for what is true, good,
and beautiful is deeply moving."
“Many of the teenagers I work with are living destitute lives, and having
made my own journey through the fire, I am humbled that God would use
me as a witness and beacon of hope that ‘with him all things are possible.'"
“I am grateful to be, as St. Theresa of Calcutta puts it, ‘but a pencil in the
hand of God,’” Gian says.
“I am proud to be named among the alumni of CDU! Gaudium de Veritate!”
he adds.
