And that takes us back to the Ministry of Health And Wellness launching its HPV vaccination campaign in schools in 2016.
They began with children in Std 4 and their main objective was to promote the vaccine that would protect children from 6 different types of cancers caused by the HPV virus.
But now they are receiving major pushback from the Catholic Church, which is an essential partner in the process.
Today Dr. Natalia Largaespada Beer explained that no child has ever been vaccinated without parental consent.
Dr. Natalia Largaespada Beer, Technical Advisor for Maternal and Child Health
"Before the launch we worked a few months with the Catholic Church, we worked with the Belize Cancer Society reaching out to all the different stakeholders to get their support. And we did get full support from the Catholic Church. And at that moment it was clear for us and it was clear for them that parents are the ones who need to authorize that their child gets vaccinated. So we had been following that process throughout the vaccination campaign. So for example for the school based vaccination program what we recommend is every year we need to visit the school have a meeting with the principal only. Secondly a second meeting is done with the teachers; a third meeting is done with parents. Now when the school calls for PTA meetings one of the difficulties we face is that not all parents reach, the attendance is a bit poor. But then the nurses have to go the extra mile, and with help from the community health workers addressing parents on a 1 to one basis. We make sure parents have the opportunity to receive the information about the vaccine, what is the objective and any other question they may have before they even sign the consent form."