After many years serving as the head of the Belize Cancer Society, Laura Tucker-Longsworth stepped down from the role and has been succeeded by former Special-Envoy Kim Simplis-Barrow. The organization announced on Wednesday the newly-appointed members of the board. News Five’s Britney Gordon visited the Belize Cancer Society for more information.
Britney Gordon, Reporting
The Belize Cancer Society has big hopes for the future. On Wednesday, a new board was announced with Kim Simplis Barrow serving as the newly elected president. Barrow spoke to News Five, giving us an update on the organisation’s way forward.
Kim Simplis-Barrow
Kim Simplis-Barrow, President, Belize Cancer Society
“Our major objectiveat this point is to really work on our strategic plan for the next five years. The current strategic plan is outdated. A part from that, we want to continue our outreach program. We want to continue our advocacy role. To ensure that people are aware of what they can do for healthy living and prevention of cancer and the services that are offered by the Belize Cancer Society. So there’s a lot to do. There’s a lot that has been done. But there’s still so much that we need to do. We have the cancer walk that’s coming up. We’re looking at the end of May and so huge preparation for that has already started. So a number we will see, I believe, a number of things happening throughout the year.”
Former President Laura Tucker-Longsworth shared her sentiments about the newly elected board and their mission for the Belize Cancer Society.
Laura Tucker-Longsworth
Laura Tucker-Longsworth, Former President, Belize Cancer Society
“I’m excited about the new boards. Seriously, we’re very happy that we put together a really dynamic slate of men and women with different expertise, as you know. The Belize Cancer Society went through a really bad time, like other organizations, during the COVID pandemic, and they were literally operated without funds, but we stayed, our doors remained opened, and so we have been making that recovery over the past two years. And so now we’re here ready and poised to really move the organization to another level. The board members and new board members are highly skilled. They are cancer survivors, many of them. I think we have over six individuals on the new board that are cancer survivors. So they understand the journey and that’s will allow great advocacy For those in the community and a greater understanding of how important it is to conduct public awareness campaigns and so on.”
Recently, the government of Costa Rica issued a state of emergency after two hundred and three cases of screwworm were detected among various animals such as cattle, horses, pigs, sheep and dogs. Screwworms are a species of parasitic fly that is well known for the way in which its larvae eat the living tissue of warm-blooded animals. The recent breakout originated but has since moved upward to Costa Rica, leaving some to wonder if this will have any effects on Belize’s cattle Industry. We spoke with Minister of Agriculture, Jose Mai for more Information. News Five’s Britney Gordon Reports.
Britney Gordon, Reporting
Belize’s cattle industry has been on the rise for the past few years, increasing a reported 21.4 percent between 2022 and 2023. This generated over seventy million, five hundred thousand dollars in revenue. Belizean cattle is also certified disease-free, but a recent outbreak of screwworm detected in Panama and Costa Rica has raised concerned about the security of the cattle industry. Minister of Agriculture, Jose Mai, briefed us on the situation.
Jose Abelardo Mai
Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture
“Last year, October, I think it was that, cases of Screwworms showed up in Panama. I believe it Screwworms were eradicated from Belize in 1993, I think it was. I was a member of the technical staff that worked then eradicating squirrels from Belize. So we eradicated Screwworms in nineties, ninety-three, I think, nine-two, ninety-three. Thereafter, Guatemala eradicated, Salvador all the way down to Panama. There’s a natural barrier between Panama and Colombia where the flies don’t come over. But for some reason or the other, last year they claim climate change and they claim the migration of people from South America into North, into Central America. They claim that that must have been the reason why we found the screwworm flies now in Panama. From Panama it then spilled over to Costa Rica. Panama right now has more than a thousand cases, I think. Costa Rica has a number of cases. I think they found two hundred and two last week. And they, actually they made a declaration, an emergency declaration, that they’re having Screwworms”.
Mai further stated that countries that have invested heavily in cattle such as Mexico, the United States, Belize, and Guatemala are especially concerned about the outbreak due to the risk of significant economic damage to the industry.
Jose Abelardo Mai
“But every country in Central America through ORISA, which is the Regional Organization for animal and Plant Health, are working together to put a plan to try to contain the spread of this pest. Now, you will probably know that the way how screwworms are controlled is by releasing sterile flies. There is a plant in Panama that produces sterile flies and then these are spread across the areas that have incidences and when they mate with the fertile flies, then the eggs do not hatch, so you break the cycle. But we understand that there’s not enough flies to disperse in the area. Hence we are having increased cases of worms. So it is a concern for all of us. We have stepped up our surveillance programs. We do not allow cattle or any animals to come into the country because they can be infected. And so the movement of animals across the region is slowing down. It’s being watched carefully. So we have stepped up our game to that.”
We also spoke with Roxanna Alvarez, Chief Veterinary Officer & Technical Director of Animal Health of BAHA, who gave further insight into Belize’s current preventative measures.
Roxanna Alvarez
Roxanna Alvarez, Chief Veterinary Officer & Technical Director of Animal Health, BAHA
“What we’ve been doing is that we’ve been sending regular press releases out to remind the public of animal health emergencies. We’ve been encouraging farmers and producers through their association groups that they need to report cases of masses. This is actually when there is an infestation of a wound by larvae. So we’re asking farmers to repeat report cases of this to their local livestock officers or to our BAHA offices. So, we’ve started that process already. We’ve also been working at training our field officers and our laboratory officers in identification in prevention and treatment and all of this of the screwworm and we’re participating in regional workshops on the response to these emergencies.”
Mai explained that sterile flies are a key part of containing the outbreak and neighboring countries are pooling resources in order to ensure that every nation is equipped.
Jose Abelardo Mai
“Now, there is a call from Mexico to us, to help in financing the cost of dispersing flies. It’s not a cheap operation to produce the flies and to disperse. Mexico has asked us to I believe we will have to every region, every country in the region will have to add some kind of resource in no specific quantities, but we have to just contribute to controlling the outbreak. If we don’t do so today, it will be even more expensive in the next year or so. So we will step up our game quick and do it very fast.”
On the topic of cattle, last week, up to three truckloads of Belizean cattle were turned away at the Mexican border due to a change in cattle importation regulations. Reportedly, the cattle was stalled by an entire day after being sent back to Belize before being returned the following day. Reporter Britney Gordon has the story.
Jose Abelardo Mai
Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture
“Last week, I think Tuesday three truckloads were returned back to Belize. I’m not sure why or under what technical reason I did have to communicate with the Minister of Agriculture, my counterpart in Mexico City, and the cattle were allowed to leave the following day, but thereafter both countries’ animal health authorities met to decide what was the problem how to solve it.”
Britney Gordon, Reporting
Agriculture Minister Jose Mai told News Five that he along with a number of health directors and representatives from Belize Agricultural Health Authority (BAHA), travelled to Mexico to sort out the matter.
Jose Abelardo Mai
“There we were informed that the protocols had changed. And so we have to adapt to the changes that they have asked us to do. And they asked us a number of things. One is that we have to use an OIRSA vet now, which is not a bad idea. It’s a good idea. We’ll have some additional costs, of course. And two is that we will need to put a corral. I call it a border corral. And they wanted to put it as close as possible to the border for their animal health inspectors to come and do inspection for the cattle to go. They said to us that this is what Guatemala is doing. So We traveled to Guatemala immediately after to look at what they have, the border between Guatemala and Mexico to look at their facility.”
Mai stated that the representatives were able to negotiate an agreement in which Belize would update its facilities to proceed with cattle exportation into Mexico.
Jose Abelardo Mai
“And the most challenging part will be to have a corral near the border within eighteen months. That is the most challenging part, but I’m sure that we will, we already started to work on a plan of how to move forward with that. The important thing, though, is that cattle continue to be exported from Belize from the entire country which is a good thing. Cattle exports can generate up to ninety million. We exported forty thousand head last year. We have about ten thousand consumed locally. So we’re talking maybe Close to ninety million dollars. And the export is very important. So we need to keep the markets open. We need to do what we need to do to keep that market going.”
The Generation Amazing Foundation is establishing its grassroots football program in Belize. The foundation is described as a legacy movement from the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. An official ceremony was held in Belmopan this morning to celebrate the introduction of the program in more than two dozen primary schools. Here is more from that event courtesy of TNC.
Nasser Al Khori
Nasser Al Khori, Executive Director, Generation Amazing Foundation
“We started at the very early stages of the bid for the World Cup. Countries put together a bid and there is a legacy component that you have to put together for FIFA. Generation Amazing was one of the projects that we presented and we continued, regardless of the bid, Generation Amazing was created as a foundation and we use sports, mainly football as a tool for social development and we are aligned with the UN’s sustainable development goals and we really believe that people have the power to come together and unite and to kind of embed different values and create more coherent societies and that is what we have been doing over the last fourteen years. We have been able to impact the lives of one millions boys and girls over seventy-five countries around the world.”
Sergio Chuc
Sergio Chuc, President, F.F.B.
“What we have done here is introduce it to the primary school kids, to a number of primary schools, twenty-five and we have been begging for more. I know Jennifer committed she will throw in another ten. The legacy will go on because the ministry for Education has seen the value with what we are doing and when they realigned their curriculum they made physical education a priority. I believe with the meeting we had, they had five major educational components and one is physical education.”
