Returning Home to Toledo Amid COVID-19 Crisis

The south, Stann Creek and Toledo Districts, have not reported any case of the coronavirus. But in several communities, residents who migrated to other parts of the country where they were employed within the tourism industry have since returned home.  The challenge, however, is assimilation since these persons are returning from locations where there was potentially a higher risk of exposure due to the nature of their jobs in the hospitality sector.

On the Phone: Greg Ch’oc, Former Executive Director, SATIIM

“In terms of the subsistence agriculture that is practiced by the Maya community, both Kekchi and Mopan, and I think to an extent the Garifuna community of Barranco, that is a traditional activity that they would have been engaged in anyway and it seems that they are doing that.  So that would be across the board for all communities.  As it relates to how they are attempting or addressing the threat of the COVID-19, it seems to be that it varies across the community.  You may have seen on Facebook that when the issue took center stage at the national level, San Marcos was one of the villages that prompted a checkpoint and made attempt to not allow members of their village who may be working in Placencia, Caye Caulker, San Pedro to come back into the village, while a significant majority of the community still continues to do subsistence agriculture, there is a significant amount, a number of communities that are now embedded in the tourism sector in Placencia, in Caye Caulker and as far away as San Pedro.”