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Special envoy Discusses Child Who Perished
posted (June 15, 2023)

And in other news, yesterday, we told you about 4-year-old Kaylee Flores, who was killed in a fire that broke out in the room was sleeping in. So far, the Office of the Special Envoy and the NCFC have been quiet, but today when we caught up with Rossana Briceno, we asked her about the incident.

She explained that while it is a tragedy, there's no real way to know if neglect is what led to the child's death. And she added that they will be reaching out to the other minor in this situation, who had tried to save the 4-year-old, but panicked when Flores started to bite her.

Rossana Briceno, Special Envoy For Women & Children
"I'm not here to blame anybody. I am not here to, um, point fingers at anybody, but I think our children with special needs do need that special attention. And if, if there was some neglect on somebody's part, we won't know, but, um, we definitely need to prioritize our children. Um, that little girl was just four years old. I mean, for just a family to lose that child. It's something that's very devastating and for Belize, every time we lose a child, it's devastating. So I, I can only say that I can, I want to express my sincere condolences to the family and to the Belizean community because we're all suffering, along with the family."

"So we're just hoping that this does not happen again. And yes, maybe some more attention needs to put, put in place. Some investigations need to be put in place, but then again, she's passed, you know, and our heart can only, um, feel for the family and just say, you know what? Let's make sure this doesn't happen again."

"You know, what we do many, many times We reach out to the, these, some, and we do it quietly because we, it's not a sensation that we want to put across to the media, but yes, we do that. And, um, I, I definitely, my office will definitely reach out to the family and we can offer, because it's up to them to accept and if they accept, then we do have, uh, people that we work with that are very, very good working with families, with children. So once um, we reach out to them, which is going to happen asap, then we will definitely put something in place for them."

"This is where children are taking care of children. And it's a vicious cycle that we have in Belize, unfortunately, um, for that poor child, the 13 year old, we will definitely reach out to her, the family, because I'm sure that the trauma that she will hold and have, it's, it's going to be very, very difficult for her, um, especially in her little mind trying to save this child and the child bit her. It's, it's not because she wanted to bite her. I mean, you know what, you know, we, we can, we know she was scared, she was frightened. And, uh, humans react. You know, we're not saying that this, we cannot judge this little 13 year old who was trying to save her. And she was bit if maybe, if it were an adult that trying to save, she or he would have understood. She was terrified. So yes, we have to reach out to that 13 year old."

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