7 News Belize

Child Labour, The Reality in Belize
posted (August 7, 2018)
Last year, we told you about the study that the Government of Belize and the European Union was doing on Belize's sugar industry in the north. The two partners were attempting to examine just how chronic the problem of child labour currently is among the sugar cane farming families of Corozal and Orange Walk.

It was a comprehensive study done over several months were consultants from the Child Development Foundation and the Youth Enhancement Services went in and conducted surveys of the children and parents who make up the cane farming population. And more than just studying the presence child labor among the farmers, the consultants also wanted to find out about the general well-being of the youths who are part of this community.

Well, today, the consultants formally handed over their final report to the Ministry of Human Development, and its CEO, Judith Alpuche. After a 4-hour morning session discussing the findings with representatives from the 3 cane farming associations, the press, and the appropriate child experts, the lead consultant granted us an interview discuss a few important findings.

She told us that the survey is indicating that child labour is on the minds of the youths who are from cane farming families, but more importantly there a lot of unsafe places in the villages, where adults indulge in drugs and alcohol, which the participants feel is more threatening to the wellbeing than child labor. Here's what she had to say about the report:

Diana Shaw - Consultant, Child Development Foundation
"So, this was a consultancy to research child labor and youth well-being in the sugar cane producing communities of Belize. And it focused on Orange Walk and Corozal, and I shared the findings of the research from 3 main activities that were done: the community mapping exercise, the household survey, and the youth in agriculture survey. And those findings supported the development of a program strategy that has also been developed to give recommendations for what are the next steps to be done to address the child labor situation in Belize. In terms of overall findings, the community mapping exercise, indicated that community members identified the sale of alcohol from a licensed establishment, and also from establishments selling to minors as the #1 unsafe issue, or issue of insecurity in their communities for children. They also identified the sale of drugs and alcohol in the community as something that was the second most important security risk for children. And then thirdly, the issue of highways and roads not having speed bumps and signs for speeding as the third most important safety issue for children. They did identify cane fields as a safety issue for children, but it did not feature in the top 3. It was identified as a concern for safety for children."

Daniel Ortiz
"Would you say that the children participants who engaged in the surveys they were tuned into the issues of their community?"

Diana Shaw
"Yes, they were very informed about what was happening in their community. They knew where all the unsafe spaces were, and in fact, some of their maps had more spaces than the adult maps. They gave more detail because they were keyed in about their experiences and things that were happening in the community, sometimes things that adults did not see as an issue of safety for children, children identified as a safety. So, yes, they were very informed about what was happening in their community, and gave recommendations as well about what to do to address it."

The consultants and their teams assessed over 1,000 persons, both youths and adults during the course of their research to prepare this report.

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