Police youth cadets hold camp in Belmopan

This week the Police Department is hosting the annual camp for its Youth Cadet Corps. Close to three hundred young people between the ages of eight and seventeen are participating in the event. This year’s camp, the largest of its kind in the country, is being hosted at the Belmopan Comprehensive School. On Monday we caught up with the cadets and the Commander of Community Policing, Sr. Supt Yolanda Murray, as they took a tour of the National Assembly.

Sr. Supt. Yolanda Murray, Commander, Community Policing
“These kids need to know about the National Assembly and we have chosen most of the older ones to come here so they can better understand how the House of Assembly works. Many of these children are from all areas of the country, all up north as far as Sarteneja and from down south and Hopkins, Stann Creek, all areas. Some of these children will never have the opportunity to come to visit the House of Assembly and so we are in Belmopan this year and we thought that this is very essential that they go there and learn something and learn something about the House.”

“It is a lot of ground planning before they arrive on camp to do all the planning, but it is something that I have been doing for the past three years, and it’s two camps per year. This year the group, although you would say it is large, it is still not as large as some of them because a lot of the children are out on summer vacations, doing summer jobs, and also doing summer classes, so for us it is still a small group.”

On Monday, the youths also visited Print Belize, the papaya factory and Guanacaste National Park. Today the children listened to educational presentations on teenage pregnancy, child abuse, conflict resolution and fire safety. On Wednesday the youths will be involved in all day arts and craft activities. The camp will officially close on Friday with the youths returning home on Saturday.