Easy Glen launches Keep Belize Clean Committee

In the scheme of things, any effort to keep under-privileged youths off the streets helps in the fight against crime. There are already a number of these initiatives in place, and those grew by one today. The Keep Belize Clean Committee was launched this morning and it has an ambitious plan. With very limited resources, the new group hopes to accomplish what others are still battling with. The Committee says it intends to create jobs for underprivileged out-of-school youths through its clean up campaign in partnership with the Ministries of Health, Education and Works. As of this week, a group of ten youths got to work in areas in the south side of Belize City. But while their scope of work will entail much more than just cleaning and spraying drains and removing refuse from the streets, President of the group, Goldburn Adolphus resisted the idea that their efforts will duplicate existing ones.

Goldburn Adolphus, Chairman, Keep Belize Clean Committee

goldburn adolphus

“Right now on the streets yoh can’t just pick up one ah di youths deh and shub deh eena wah program cause some ah di youths dehn actually can’t goh certain parts ah Belize.  We wouldn’t want it be wah risk and we have wah responsibility pan wi head fi di put wah man round maybe back ah areas and ih end up lose ih life.  Soh dehn goh through a screening first, dehn have wah process and these guys that end up on this program could go countrywide, not only city-wide but countrywide. The guys on the ground are digging out the drains manually, carting out the mud.”

Marion Ali

“I applaud your effort, you’re hiring ten young people, but why is that necessary when we have the Belize City Council who’s supposed to be taking care of these very same things?”

Goldburn Adolphus

“As you say and I would say to the general public, if we go to ask anybody in the city right now how they feel about the collection of garbage and the way how the street and diggings of drains is happening you will hear people say that they’re not happy.  Many of their drains do not get dig for many years, so with the Ministry of Works and KBC committee along with the different of people who want to join shoulder to shoulder with us, I guarantee that we could have a clean, clean Belize City with this committee.”

emory baird

Emory Baird, Committee Member, Keep Belize Clean

“We’ll be digging out the drains, they will have the guys that will be coming with the spray and stuff then they have the guys that will be cutting the grass and the different yards and stuff. That is what will happen with the program. We will try to do everything at once but everything start off with a group first so with the ten people that are doing it, down the stretch we will end up get more.”

The youths involved have received basic training to deal with the scope of work they are supposed to undertake from week to week and they will be supervised by personnel from the particular Ministries and participating agencies.  We spoke with a couple of those representatives following today’s press conference.

Mark Bernard, Senior Public Health Officer

mark bernard

“Our interest in this program is that we’re going to be reducing breeding sites for mosquitoes, we will be moving refuse from the city and that is going to reduce harborage for rodents and other insects. So definitely it’s beneficial to the public health unit and that’s why we’re on board.”

Lyndon Gibson, Supervisor, Min. of Works

“If yoh goh round yoh notice yoh got wah lotta overgrown bushes. Imagine you keep your yard clean and I keep my yard dirty, we wah got dengue right? So wid dis we want tek off wi hat to everybody weh cooperate fi mek wi work together.”

Marion Ali

“If we have so many sanitation workers on the streets and the city still looks dirty do you think ten people can make a difference?”

lyndon gibson

Lyndon Gibson

“Ten people, I sure ten people could make a difference because right now  if you walk pan the street right or drive round inna yoh vehicle right now yoh wah notice BML dehn deh pan go slow right. And dehn di get paid fi clean di City; dig di drain, ova grown bushy lot, clean di street and if yoh notice ih still out ah order. So wid we come together, definite we could get the city clean.”

The programme is expected to end in ninety days time and will engage in another problem. The salaries of the youths will be paid by the Ministries of Works, Health and Education. The youths will earn a stipend of a hundred and twenty five dollars per week for the full length of the programme.