Min. of Health honors outstanding employees
In every field there are those people who persevere year in, year out never expecting to be singled out for their accomplishments. For these people getting the job done is reward enough. But it’s always nice to be noticed and today as part of World Health Day the Ministry of Health asked several of its members to stand up and take a bow. Hyacinth Latchman reports.
Fourteen men and women from all over Belize were recognized for their dedication and outstanding service in the Ministry of Health. News Five spoke with some of the honorees following the ceremonies and all seemed very happy to have their dedication finally recognized.
Magarita Rowley, Orange Walk Hospital
“I feel both honored and privileged that I have been given the opportunity of getting this certificate of recognition. I want to use this as an incentive to serve the people of my country to the best of my ability.”
Dr. Baldomino Barbosa, Corozal Hospital
“I feel very good about this award because we’ve been working with the ministry for so long with the ups and downs and we are still there. As the head of the health services in Corozal I have to try and solve all the problems for the ministry. And I think that when this occasion came up and it was decided that my name should be submitted, at first I did not want to. But for the recognition for the years of service, I feel good about it. And we also wanted to recognize people from Corozal who have distinguished themselves also in the service to the people of Belize.”
Albert Roches, Public Health Inspector
“This is the best feeling that I have ever had because it is for the first time I feel like I have done something for the country of Belize. And many of times people have had rewards and I wonder what are the criteria for them to get the award. But when I look at this group here today I feel that this recognition has been given to me and I am very proud of it. And I think having retired I will be very proud of it.”
Minister Servulo Baeza told us how the idea came about to honor these employees and how the selection process was carried out.
Servulo Baeza, Minister of Health
“The key people in the ministry have been playing around with the idea that we needed to do something to motivate our personnel. When we look at some of the problems that the ministry has, one of them is motivation, attitudes. And it’s difficult to come up with how you can motivate and how you can change attitudes. And so about a month ago on a retreat the idea came up that we should have this awards ceremony. And since this day was coming up which is April seventh which is World Health Day, I felt like it was the most appropriate day to do this. So we went ahead and did it for today.
Basically we had a committee that compiled the information from the different districts. So we sent to each district asking them to nominate people who they think should receive this award. And then we compiled all the information at the ministry. We had a sheet which consists of all the criteria, years of service, dedication, ability to motivate colleagues. I think about seven or eight criteria. They filled it out and then send it down to us.”
Hyacinth Latchman for News Five.
The awards ceremony was held at the Radisson Fort George Hotel.
