“It Takes a Village” to Protect Kids

The drowning death of 6-year-old Gabriel Pablo Orellano on Monday near the Belize City municipal airstrip has sent shockwaves through the community. Christy Almeida, the Executive Chair and Co-Founder of Autism Belize, revealed that statistics show that 71% of children with autism die due to elopement and drowning.

With yesterday’s tragic incident, she says this has been a wake-up call for the Belizean community to protect vulnerable children like Gabriel.

Almeida explained that ‘elopement’ is a term often associated with children with autism, which refers to their tendency to wander off or run away, frequently without an awareness of danger. “They are not the kids that we can just easily teach to look at both sides of the road before they cross the street or to walk on the sidewalk or to understand this,” she said.

She said this is a reality that parents of children with autism face daily and added that these children are not misbehaving; they simply do not have the same understanding of risk that others do.

Almeida called for a stronger community approach to protect these children, stating that this incident is the reason and importance of having a “village” to support them. “We have to go back to ‘it takes a village.’ We need to create a community that will knock their chest and say, I will become his village, so no other parent has to go through what that family is going through today.”

In response to the incident, the Ministry of Education issued a statement, announcing that an investigation is underway. The police department, in collaboration with the ministry and the school, is working to gather all the details.

Under her capacity as the Ministry of Education’s Special Education Coordinator, Almeida stated she could not comment further on the investigation until it is complete and official updates are available.