At risk youths are focus of new initiative
It seems there is a story on youth violence and crime almost daily. We all notice it, but how many of us are willing to commit ourselves to reaching out to those most at risk? Today a group of Belizeans explained why they are willing to take on the challenge.
Presenter
“I always say to other parents, we have to be firm and loving, loving but firm with our children; our children need to know the road that they have to take.”
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
This morning, children, parents, educators, government representatives, religious leaders, and members of the NGO community gathered in Belize City in coordinated partnership to discuss ways to turn today’s society into a nurturing environment that protects the country’s children.
While everyone accepts that there are productive youths in society, if the evening news is any indication, there is a dire need to help the many at-risk adolescents who must face the challenges of growing up in Belize today.
Roy Bowen, Program Officer, UNICEF
“We all have to join in to try to create that environment where our children can excel, where they can discover their potential and move our society ahead.”
Within that context, the United Nations Children Fund in Belize has partnered with the Government of Belize in a series of workshops held all over the country designed to get to root causes of the problems facing youths.
Roy Bowen
“Many times, those of us who have been in the social services for a while think we know exactly what are the issues. This workshop is designed to create an atmosphere where they can talk about the issues together. We didn?t want it to be a “talk down” situation; therefore we called it a dialogue. On the programme, as you are going to see today, young people will get a chance to make presentations and also to sit around in a group and come up with solutions. So the solutions will no longer be tapped down, it’s going to come from the bottom, because they know the issues that affect them.”
Sylvia Flores, Minister of Human Development
“At the ministry we are taking this very, very seriously because as you know, many of our young people are out on the streets, sometimes committing crimes. You look at the statistics; almost every week basically there is a young person involved. So we are hoping that this will be a priority on our agenda as long as I’m the Minister responsible for Human Development.”
Today’s sessions included participants from the Cayo and Belize District. According to Social Planning Officer Evan Dakers, economic and ethnic factors create a unique situation in this particular region of the country…one that does not lend itself to cooperation.
Evan Dakers, Social Planning Officer, Min. of Human Dev.
“There seems to be an increase in family breakdown in the Belize District, particularly Belize City. And I think that has to be primarily because Belize City is a mixture… you have almost every region coming here, people looking for opportunities, whether it’s educational, in employment, so there’s this mixture and sometimes, it not easy to pull together if you come from different backgrounds, it takes a while for that to work out.”
In an effort to overcome that hurdle, today’s activities included parents helping parents with child-rearing techniques. The number one recommendation?
Evan Dakers
“Studies have shown that even though it would appear as if kids are not taking in what their parents are telling them, it is only later in life when those same kids become parents themselves then you find that they fall back on some of those basic values and principles that they would have already been exposed to ten years, fifteen years earlier. So I would want to say that communication is key.”
The countrywide workshops are part of the UNICEF XCHANGE initiative, which will officially be launched later this month. Today’s meeting was held at the National Development Foundation of Belize under the theme: “Creating a Protective Environment for Children, Adolescents and their families – a Community Dialogue.”
