London bombing victim was volunteer in Belize

On July seventh, fifty-six people were killed when a series of what are believed to be suicide bomb blasts went off in the London underground rail system and on a double-decker bus. The terrorist acts shocked Great Britain and much of the world, but at the time we did not know that among the casualties was a good friend of Belize. Fiona Stevenson was a British volunteer with the organisation Challenges Worldwide. She had recently returned from assignment in Belize, where she worked with the Ministry of Human Development. She was riding to work on the subway train when the bomb went off, presumably very close to where she sat. For those here who knew her, Stevenson’s death was a senseless tragedy.

Ava Pennil, Director of Human Services
?We were called from Challenges after the–when they decided that she was probably dead, she was not found yet. It was a week after the disaster, we were called and they said that she was presumed dead. Then, we were called again yesterday and told that her funeral will be on the twenty-ninth of this month.?

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
One month and a half after twenty-nine year old Fiona Stevenson left Belize, she is listed as one of the persons missing and presumed dead following the London bombings almost two weeks ago. Prior to her death, Stevenson, a criminal lawyer from Danbury, Essex, worked extensively with the Ministry of Human Development to develop a staff training manual for child care proceedings in Belize.

Ava Pennil
?She was here for three months. She did research the first month, the second month she developed a training manual that was left here, and the third month she did the training of officers from around the country.?

?She was very outgoing, she toured Belize on the weekend, she took part in La Ruta Maya, and that was like only three weeks after she came, she was practising then she took part in La Ruta Maya. She learned to dive out on the cayes. She went to Honduras to also do a dive as well, so she was somebody who took advantage of the opportunity being here. She was her only three months, she worked with us and got to know the country as well, she got to know a lot of people in her short time here. She will most sadly be missed.?

The manual Stevenson helped to develop will greatly assist social workers to effectively present cases in court. Jacqueline Woods for News Five.

The Human Development Department is hoping to produce a custom bound copy of the manual and send it to the Stevenson family.