Just looking at the stories in the news tonight you'd know that the social crisis of criminality is nowhere near to being solved. And those most affected are often children. That's what UNICEF and Human Development Department will been looking at with a study of crime that examines the effects that it has on children. We found out more when the project was launched this morning:
Michael Rosberg – Consultant
“This is a study that is going to be working with children between the ages of 3 and 17 in school and out of school to learn what crime and violence, what kind of impact it has on them, in order to develop some practical solutions to make changes within society and to help the youth protect themselves.”
“One of the ideas that has come forward is to work with youth data collectors so we are going to have young people talking to the children and talking to the young people. The youth data collectors are all high school grads. They are all very good at people to talk to them. And they are all decent people. They are going through a ten day training session before they head into the schools and into the streets because we will be working within schools as well as out of school youth. And they’ll be trained in a number of ways of collecting information, interviews, games that we’ll play with the younger children that will show us pattern of behavior and questioners for the older youths that we’ll be interviewing.”
Fermin Olivera – Director Community Rehabilitation Department
“We’re hoping that with the findings, we have ideas of what we believe is out there now I’m sure the study will shed more light. Now I’m hoping that with the findings we’ll be able to influence, share this information, that will guide policy, that will guide and influence strategies to mitigate the impact on kids. We have ideas of what we believe what is happening out there. But truly we have no tangible data to show this.”
“When we are contemplating strategizing developing programs I mean where are these programs founded on? Is it what’s happening in the United States? What’s happening in Jamaica? The truth is that this study will give us valuable local information that is unique to Belize, unique to our experience and we’ll be able to tailor our programs base on our experience.
The study will be completed by December of next year when recommendations on it will be made for further action.