The Sustainable and Child Friendly Municipality initiative was launched today at the Biltmore. The idea is to devise a strategic plan geared at protecting the rights of youths by taking stock of the issues affecting them and finding solutions.
It's a mammoth task but UNICEF along with the Belize Mayor's Association are getting 100% behind it. UNICEF representative, Ivan Yerovie told us what they'll be looking at:
Ivan Yerovie, Representative, UNICEF
"The mayors along with the communities work to improve the situation of children in every city. It's not an easy task definitely, however we are counting on the mayors to really improve the agenda and the work they do with children. Children rights is deserve, not only the central government, but also the local government in this case the mayors in the cities to really work with children to listen to children and to improve the agenda for them. I will mention one of those serious issues that are affecting children is violence against them. Of course the statistics are talking by itself in terms of sexual abuse for instance; I think every 3 days there is a case of sexual abuse to our children in this country. We have to put the topic on the table. We need this country to talk about those issues and of course it's not an easy task but the idea here is how can the city mayors play a major role in terms of coordinating the response."
Simeon Lopez, Mayor, Belmopan
"Mainly for their own safety we need to do things like traffic awareness for their safety in crossing roads and things like that, but also for them to be healthy as well; parks and playgrounds would also be necessary for our children in Belmopan; a family friendly society."
But before you start jotting down your list of youth grievances there's no timeframe and no budget at this time - all that will depend on what the research fleshes out.
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