Thousands attend children’s rally in Bz. City

Today tots, teens, and all children in between took centre stage throughout the country as part of Children’s Day. In Belize City, thousands of school children took over the Belize City Centre for a morning full of performances by their peers. News 5’s Ann-Marie Williams has the highlights.

Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting

Over four thousand Belizean students packed the City Centre this morning for the annual Stay-in School Jam. This major activity for National Children’s Day is held under the auspices of the National Committee for Families and Children and sponsored by B.T.L. Boys and girls from several primary schools took time out to reflect on the meaning of the event.

Leon Garbutt, Student

“If you no have wah education, you wah live enna wah low house, yuh wah poor and no have no money. But if you have a good education, go dah wah good college, a good school and you could have a good education and lot of money.”

Hydeia Golanche, Student

“I think it’s important because you have a time for the children to enjoy themselves and have fun.”

Darnel Lopez, Student

“It’s good to stay in school because you get an education and you wah mek a new beginning for your life.”

The children not only enjoyed themselves by dancing and having fun; they also brought with them a variety of entertainment, like this twenty-six member dancing ensemble from Grace Primary School. And this poem “Lef mi Yah” by Belizean Patricia Sanchez, performed by this nine-year-old from Calvary Temple School.

Child Reciting Poem

“Yuh talk bout different race, Gyal Belize dah the place.

From north to south, east to west, yuh see all kind a face.

We have Creole, Garifuna, Mestizos, Ketchi, Maya Indians and Mennonites, Even East Indian, Turks and Chinese di unite.

I like mi lee country bad…”

Community role models were also invited to speak to the children. Joan Burrell, better known as Ma Joan, was one of them.

Joan Burrell

“Be punctual, arriving on time, honesty, decency, showing respect, and those are only a few of the rules that we are taught. All these qualities are necessary if you are to be productive and to be an asset in whichever community or country you decide to live.”

And this grand Children’s Day Rally was made all the more successful with the help of B.T.L. Public Relations Manager Suzette Tillett says today’s event is part of the company’s ongoing stay in school programme.

Suzette Tillett, P.R. Manager, B.T.L.

“The programme consists of several activities like the Internet to schools programme, the scholarship programme, we have a learning phone programme. And the stay in school just adds to it because it’s a day that also gives the kids fun and it provides motivational speeches and so forth. We have different give-aways, we know the kids like things like give-aways, balloons, pencils, cups, T-shirts and so forth, so those are the things that we’re giving away today. We had hoped to have a longer programme so that we could have a big grand prize, but we were told that the Stay in School Jam would only be half day this year. So, we had to cut down a bit on the amount of things we were going to offer.”

Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.