The Children Put PM Briceño in the Hot Seat for Children’s Day!
Today is being observed as World Children’s Day across the globe. November twentieth was first established in 1954 as Universal Children’s Day, used to promote awareness and advocate for the rights and welfare of children. The theme this year is “Reimagining a Better Future for Every Child,’ with UNICEF putting the spotlight on how the COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a child rights crisis and underscoring that the cost of the pandemic for children is immediate and, if left unaddressed, may have a lifetime of impact. As a part of this year’s Children’s Day, UNICEF facilitated sessions for youth leaders to speak directly with Prime Minister John Briceño. This morning, fifteen-year-old Solé Meighan, a fourth former at E.P. Yorke High School and member of the Child Advisory Board, introduced herself to PM Briceño and got the opportunity to ask him questions about the government’s plans for children in Belize. Here’s a snippet of the conversation where Briceño shared some of the ways his administration intends to tackle issues that have a direct bearing on the quality of life of children.
John Briceño
Prime Minister John Briceño
“We want to make sure that no child is denied an education from pre-school to all the way to sixth form. So, our goal is to be able to provide free education for everyone. But that education we need to take a different look as to what exactly we are doing. We have to ensure that we are not producing only people to work in the office. We need engineers; doctors; technicians; entrepreneurs. So, we have to refocus and rethink. We need people with technical skills. Our young people are very good with technology. So, it is not only call centers; whereby you can be doing light programming; website production; so many things you can do providing services abroad. And the third issue is about a safer society and a safer society is not only about having more police on the street which we want to do but to also change the function of the police that the police should do more community policing; friends of our community. So, we want to do that but we also want a safer Belize that our health system is working; our educational system is working ; that we have parks that we can take our children to play in and that you are able to feel safe and free to walk in this country.”
