PAHO holds regional meeting in Belize City
This morning official opening ceremonies were held in Belize City for a five-day conference of the Pan American Health Organization. Participants are expected to share their respective experiences regarding each country’s strategy, but as I found out today, the experts agree that good health begins with the individual.
Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
Today, the world’s oldest public health organization, the Pan American Health Organization, is in Belize City to critically review the work it has been doing in Central America and Spanish speaking countries in the Caribbean. According to organizers, the idea is to improve health and quality of life in these specific areas by strengthening ties between member countries.
Dr. Beverly Barnett, PAHO/WHO Representative, Belize
“Among the objectives of the meeting would be how we relate to the international environment, how we work better with our partners, how we look at the sub-regional integration processes and how we ensure that the PAHO country presence, as we call it, in the countries is best suited to take advantage of what is going on at the sub-regional level, as well as work with the countries.”
But as PAHO director Doctor Mirta Roses Periago emphasizes, political leaders must commit to improve the quality of life for their own people.
Dr. Mirta Roses Periago, Director, PAHO
“We have a kind a of patchy situation where still we have some communities, particularly those stricken by poverty, where we have a very unfavourable situations and this require a lot of political will and good channelling of the resources because we know what has to be done.”
“We are really working with the countries – how they can develop better public policies, how you can use some of the inter-sectorial action that combine education, transportation, urban planning, health, housing so that we can address these problems of the new society in a comprehensive way.”
Belize’s Minister of Health Jose Coye says government’s efforts to alleviate national issues have been met by cultural phenomena.
Joe Coye, Minister of Health
“How do we get the individual, the family and the community at large to accept the responsibility for their health and to indeed take advantages of the whole health sector reform in terms of the facilities that we are offering and of course the whole health education and behavioural change programmes, that is the main challenge for us.”
The theme of individual responsibility will be addressed during this week’s seminar as representatives discuss successful strategies that advocate for healthy lifestyle changes so as to reduce the increasing number of cases of preventable illnesses like Diabetes and Hypertension.
During her visit, the PAHO director will also be paying courtesy calls on the Governor General, the Prime Minister and Cabinet, as well as U.N. agency representatives in Belize.
