Labour Department’s Sets Out To Eradicate Child Labor in Belize by 2025

The Labour Department has set 2025 as its target year to completely eliminate child labour in Belize. And, last week the department launched its Child Labour Education Tour to build upon its sensitization efforts in rural communities. A 2013 statistical report revealed that the majority of child labor cases in Belize are found in rural communities, and more specifically in areas where residents rely on farming for income. As a result, the department launched its education tour in Chunox village where residents from Chunox, Sarteneja, Progresso and Copper Bank villages all gathered to learn more about Belize’s National Child Labour Policy and Strategy 2022-2025. This tour is part of the implementation process of that strategy. Commissioner Dominquez-Patt, told us more.

Rissela Dominquez-Patt

Rissela Dominquez-Patt, Labor Commissioner

“What we are doing between this month and the month of March is that February fifteenth we went to the village of Chunox and we invited several villages, Progresso, Sartaneja, Cooper Bank and all those close villages. The intention is to sensitize and educate the public about the importance of child labor and how together we can eliminate child labor. So, participants in this session were parents, villagers, chairpersons, teachers, and students, because it is very important to target these persons because it was identified in the 2013 statistical report that child labor happen in those villages so that is the reason why we decided to launch this educational campaign. So, during the months of March we will also have other targeted sessions with the Mennonite community, with industries such as the sugar industry, banana and the citrus. We have been working with these industries to sensitizing the farmers especially when it comes to child labor and reducing the incidents of child labor and letting them know it is not that your children should not work, but what kind of work can they engage in. Your child can work, but are you exposing them to hazardous work? Does it affect their schooling? Those are some of the things that needs to be answered and some of the things you need to look at. Some of them admitted that they were not aware what child labor really is and that a farm can be penalized for having a child working and they are not aware of the side effect oin a child who is exposed to hazardous work.”