National Youth Council Speaks Out Against Crime and Violence

The newly convened National Youth Council of Belize has weighed in on the escalating gang violence in the city which resulted in the brazen, brutal murders of three young men in just four hours. In a release issued on Thursday, the NYCB states that, “Our main objective is to look at the wider interest of our young population and fight for its protection, so to see that our young people are becoming nothing more than statistics is disheartening. Like every other warm‐blooded Belizean, we are beyond concerned, we want a solution.” Today, two members of the Council visited our studios to explain why they are prepared to get involved.

Renata Samuels, PR Officer, Youth Council of Belize

“We felt like it was enough – three deaths in one night and it bothered us and we thought enough was enough. We need to speak on behalf of the youth. The youth need protections and the youth need upliftment and we thought that we want to be a part of the solution – something needs to be done and done very fast.”

Stafin Duncan

Stafin Duncan, President, Youth Council of Belize

“We don’t have it down pat. We don’t know the solution right away but we want to find it. We feel a lot may have to do with some negligence – some social negligence and community negligence. We have a responsibility as parents and teachers and community leaders to step us as was stated in the release. If you see something happening in the home or in the school that might send a signal, be responsible and guide that child. We feel that a lot of children are lacking that guidance and that contributes to all these young people participating in the crime these days.”

Renata Samuels

Renata Samuels

“We are connected to all the different youth groups. There are many different youth groups that are targeting these specific things, like the Red Cross and Rotaract. We believe that contacting the youth groups, working with the Department of youth Services are all factors that can help us to get the youths involved and get their honest opinions on what they need to get done. There’s a FB page where they can talk to us, send a message easily. They can email us – that’s why our press release included our email address. We want to talk to them and we want to know what they need done because they’re involved in it so they need to give their opinions.”