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A closing ceremony was held today for the Child labour awareness and education campaign. It included an MOU being signed with the citrus growers association, and the sugarcane Association of Northern Belize to prevent child labor from occurring out in the plantations. Jomarie Lanza was there and here's what she reported.
In July the Ministry of Labor launched its new National Child and Labor Policy and Strategy with a sole objective to eradicate child labor in Belize by 2025. The Ministry partnered with other stakeholders including the dominant agricultural industries like citrus and sugar cane to deter any instance of child labor that would occur out in the fields.
And as a testament to this today they signed a memorandum of understanding to signify this partnership in the effort to end child labor.
Today at the closing ceremony, several schools from the Toledo district were awarded for their participation in the poster competitions against child labor hosted by the ministry, The minister of labor spoke with us about the success of this educational campaign against child labor in schools.
Oscar Requena, Minister of Labor
"Today is indeed a very special day, in which we have seen the culmination of a national campaign and awareness program to end child labor across Belize. So today what you are, seeing are the highlights, you know we brought together the students who participated the winning entries, we had paintings, we had billboards, we had animation videos, several activities that were carried out and to do what we wanted to do is to highlight that work that wonderful work you know to place across the country and to highlight the winners. Of course we want to thank and congratulate all the students, all the teachers, all the principles, everybody who collaborated. This work is a joint effort by our ministry of rural transformation, community development, labor, and local government. And of course UNICEF ILO Belize the national committee for families and children our national committee to end child labor among other agencies, so it is a collaborative work, and today is a day of celebration to celebrate the achievements of those students, and create a greater awareness to all lesions, that we must all work together to end child labor, and ensure that we create the opportunities for our young children, to be able to grow healthy, to be nurtured, and to get a good education and become good productive citizens."
It is estimated that thousands of children in Belize are victims of child labor. Minister Requena says that as they continue to make progress in enforcing these policies and stiff penalties against child labor across the country, by 2025 these numbers may be down to 0:
Oscar Requena, Minister of Labor "Well I think it is important that we highlight that last year we presented our national child labor policy and strategy and certainly our goal and objectives are to ensure that by 2025 we eliminate all forms of child labor in Belize. We certainly are working very hard and this is all in line with the SDG‘s in which we have made international commitments, and we have an obligation as a country to work together to achieve those goals."
"We must continue to ensure that we work with the various industries, and today I think a very important thing also that I almost forgot to mention is that today we also saw the signing of the various memorandum of understanding with the citrus association, the sugarcane Association of Northern Belize, in which they are committed to working along with us as an industry to ensure that they are very much aware that they have a very important task in ensuring that they do not employee children in very hazardous and challenging situations that we protect our children and that at the end of the day we all work together to build a better Belize."
