Education programme helps village leaders

With the passage last year of the Village Council Act, the nation’s one hundred and eighty villages gained new powers and responsibilities. To help residents better handle their new status, the Ministry of Rural Development is organising training sessions for potential leaders. Development officer Clifford King says the education is crucial if the legislation is to be effective.

Clifford King, Rural Community Development Officer

“The Ministry of Rural Development, SPEAR, Ministry of Human Development, Women and Civil Society have put together a training package for rural communities. This package covers leadership, it covers democracy, and it covers the government system in Belize. The purpose of this is to increase the awareness of rural dwellers on the village Council Act and the system of government in Belize. What we’re set up to do at the ministry is to go in to villages, and we’re trying to do this village by village, to train the people on the act and on our democracy. What we hope is to get at least thirty participants from each of the villages to come to this training.”

“For example one of the things the Village Council Act provides for, is for each village to have a lots committee. An independent lots committee made up of persons from within that village. In the past and even now, most lots committees for rural villages are appointees from area representatives and government officials. That is going to change and that is one of the main out things of the village council act.”

Census figures show that the rural population makes up over half of Belize’s population. So far the training programme has been implemented in the Toledo District.