And from politics to three girls who perished in a fire…
It happened six years ago at the Princess Royal Youth Hostel. The girls were locked inside a building and lit a fire hoping that they would get released. But they weren't rescued in time and their burnt bodies were later found in the corner of a room.
It's a tragic story that the country will never forget, especially the family of those three girls. The brother of 14-year-old Elizabeth Mckoy has come out to say that the incident still hurts their family to this day.
David Mckoy told us that when he first heard the interview from the minister on July 8th that the hostel would be rebranded, he was still upset at the way his sister had died. Now he is optimistic about the change in culture at the hostel but says it won't be easy.
He spoke with Courtney Menzies yesterday via Zoom. Here is that story.
14-year-old Elizabeth Mckoy would have been entering her twenties, if her young life wasn't cut short by a fire at the Princess Royal Youth Hostel. For the past six years, the Mckoy family has had to deal with her death, and while it wasn't easy, her brother said that they have come to terms with it.
But the scar is still there, and David Mckoy said that when he saw that the hostel was being rebranded, it reopened the wound and led him to make a vicious comment against the hostel's authorities.
But after some rational thought, he now hopes that the rebranding is a success and will ensure that an incident like the one that killed his sister never reoccurs.
David Mckoy - Brother of Elizabeth Mckoy
"To see a rebranding, it is a good initiative to show that our government is moving in the right direction to deal with these types of situations and to ensure that something like that doesn't happen again but it doesn't take away from the fact that it's very hurtful to see it because I can tell you that when I heard the news, I was not in Belize, I was abroad and I saw on Facebook the blaze and immediately my mind went that my sister was there because my mother told me so it was rough when you lose a loved one and you have to rehash it, it always burns like the first time. It takes the personnel who are working there to appreciate what happened and because no amount of building or rebranding that is done will change the mindset or the culture of how these children are dealt with so it is a systematic thing whereby the persons who are there have to be trained and I don't know if they're trained or what the situation is when them but if they are able to deal with these children in a more, in my opinion, humane basis, then it will be a success."
And Mckoy said that there needs to be constant training to deal with children from different backgrounds and circumstances.
David Mckoy
"That's not an institution that any parents would want to find their children in because it's a helpless position you're in so the state is to take care of children who are unruly in a sense or who cannot be dealt with by their parents but not to take their life and I'm not saying the state directly or deliberately took away their life, it was a breakdown in procedure as the former CEO of the Ministry of Human Development said, but that doesn't take away from the fact that it still happened, there's not just rebranding, there's a constant, in my opinion, constant need for training of the staff to let them be more sensitized to the different lifestyles or behaviours that will be there so that they don't just get frustrated and lock them up because to me I think that was just a frustration thing. It's unfortunate that it never happened a while ago to prevent the incident that happened but at the end of the day it is what it is, it has already happened and the best way to move forward is to make changes which the ministry is doing."
And even though Mckoy said his family has accepted Elizabeth's untimely death, they still want to see the report on the investigation – which they still have not been privy to. He plans to eventually approach the ministry about it.
David Mckoy
"That's something that I have on the top of my to do list for this year but I am waiting for the proper approach, perhaps maybe the minister will get in touch with the family after hearing this interview and provide them with some sort of clarity and of course I'm inclined to seek it out but I want to do so in a time when it's not going to be met with any resistance."
And while it won't bring back his sister, he's also hoping that the death of Elizabeth and the two other girls will serve as a catalyst for change regarding some of the social issue plaguing this country.
David Mckoy
"These girls should be some sort of pioneer for change for that facility and we must look at the inherent problem that permeates our society as opposed to just sweeping it aside that this person is uncontrollable and all of that because the problem won't go away and we cannot stop out society from growing with single parents and having these types of situation where children end up being placed at the youth hostel so my point is we just need to have a better dialogue with the ministry and these children. There will always be some level of resentment, some level of hostility, even though it's not permeated or directed to a particular individual, there will always be that because you lost a loved one, but at the end of the day we have to do things the right way and perhaps as I said the report will bring further closure to my family and to me."
Mckoy hopes that with the infrastructural change, there will be some sort of fire extinguishing system that will be installed into the buildings.
