Earlier today, Prime Minister John Briceño and Foreign Minister Francis Fonseca met with Ambassador Uzra Zeya, as well as a high-level delegation from the United States. The mission called attention to Belize’s leadership on humane migration, and emphasized the successful co-chairmanship of the Migration Roundtable and commending initiatives such as the Amnesty Program. Uzra Zeya is the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights.
Uzra Zeya
Uzra Zeya, U.S. Ambassador
“Over the last few days, I’ve had excellent wide-ranging meetings with Prime Minister Briceno, Minister of Home Affairs Musa, Minister of Defense Marin, National Security Director Delcid, along with other senior officials and the Special Envoy for the Development of Families and Children. I also engaged dynamic leaders from civil society and the National Women’s Commission and the National AIDS Commission. So I want to extend my sincere appreciation to Prime Minister Briceno and Foreign Minister Fonseca for their close collaboration and our growing partnership in Belize and throughout the region. The United States is grateful for our flourishing relationship anchored in shared commitments to democratic values and human rights. We are also proud to be the leading trading partner and source of investment funds for Belize and its people. The United States invested three million dollars this past year to help make a difference in areas that Belizeans care about, improving civilian security, strengthening the justice sector and securing Belize’s borders. In fact, since 2015, we have provided over fifty-seven million U.S. dollars in security, economic, health and humanitarian assistance to this great nation and through my visit, I have seen firsthand the dividends of this cooperation. We also recognize Belize’s principled stand as one of twelve countries recognizing Taiwan. This cooperation with Taiwan is benefiting the Belizean people as seen in the recent global cooperation and training framework event focused on combating gender-based violence that brought together advocates from Taiwan, Belize and the United States.”
The discussions underlined the importance of prioritizing issues of human rights and engagement with civil society, with particular focus on protecting marginalized members of society. The delegation stressed the importance of enhancing citizen and human-centered security, strengthening the justice sector and securing Belize’s borders.
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs
“We had a very good discussion today. The Under Secretary had the opportunity as well to meet with the Prime Minister earlier this morning. We just had a very good discussion, we talked about citizen security, human rights, you know, democracy, the amnesty program, the migration issue and issues that affect the most vulnerable in our society.”
Reporter
“Is this something that came up between yourself and the Under Secretary, the number of Belizean asylum seekers who have headed to the United States?
Francis Fonseca
“We discussed that very openly, you know. We didn’t talk in great detail about the numbers of people going, but you made a very good point earlier. The whole asylum process, as you rightly pointed out, was affected. Many people said why or asked themselves, “Why should I go through this process when in fact I have an opportunity to get into the United States of America?” We found that many of the people who had applied, when they went looking for them, had actually left the country. [We don’t have] the full numbers on that but quite a few, even in my own constituency in Belama, I’ve noticed a number of families have gone… a number of families have gone to try their luck, as you said, and I haven’t seen them again. So I suspect they’ve been successful in reaching their destination.”
Foreign Minister Francis Fonseca joined Minister of National Defense Florencio Marin Jr. in visiting the newly constructed Sarstoon Forward Operating Base on Thursday. It was Fonseca’s first trip to that southernmost end since assuming the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade at the start of the year. The Sarstoon FOB was previously built and inaugurated under the Barrow administration, but eventually fell into disrepair and the state of the facility was only made worse by the erosion that was taking place at the site. The Government of Belize has since invested significantly in refurbishing the facility and yesterday, the soldiers presently assigned to the location welcomed the ministers and their C.E.O.s, including former Brigadier General Dario Tapia.
Dario Tapia
Dario Tapia, C.E.O., Ministry of National Defense
“Today’s visit is to orientate the foreign minister, the new foreign minister, Honorable Francis Fonseca, who recently took over the Foreign Affairs Ministry, for him to understand what the Sarstoon is all about. We only hear [about] it and when we hear about it, it’s always on the news. The thing is it’s important that the foreign minister and the CEO from Foreign Affairs, along with some other members of his staff at Foreign Affairs, to have a firsthand look at what transpires here and what it’s all about to be out here at the Sarstoon. So we are glad that he was able to visit, along with my minister, to be here along with Commander BDF and others to see what is occurring now at the newly transformed forward operating base. Many Belizeans would recall that about a year or so ago, my minister, on his tour, visited here and he was appalled at the living conditions of our soldiers and he then made the decision to relocate the soldiers temporarily until we were able to rebuild this facility which we have now done. We have spent a significant amount of money, as approved by Cabinet, to have the FOB at a very livable standard and if when you walked around, you would see the improvements that we have done here. Not only in the living facility, but in the kitchen facility, the restroom. In addition to that, the earthworks that have been done here is very significant. We have been able to stabilize the ground here, put boulders to stop the erosion that was occurring here. We have built a marina that is about to completed and also the landing site for the helicopter that can land here, which we have tested and we have landed the Belize Defense Force helicopter here. And so the transformation has been tremendous from what it was a few months ago, to what it is now.
According to Foreign Minister Fonseca, it is important to maintain military presence at the Sarstoon FOB so as to deter illegal activity, including encroachment and drug trafficking.
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs
”It’s been a very rewarding experience, you know, it’s something I certainly wanted to do. As you said, I took over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade on January first, and obviously, our territorial sovereignty is a priority issue for us at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So it was absolutely important for me to engaged with the Ministry of National Security and Border Defense and arrange this visit to the Sarstoon Forward Operating Base. You know, I talk about it all the time when I meet with our counterparts and when I attend any function where we have to speak on behalf of Belize. I talk about the importance of the Sarstoon Forward Operating Base. So I am very happy I was able to come here today, I had a very good briefing from the officers who are stationed here about the importance of the work that they are doing here. It’s about, first and foremost, establishing a presence, a military presence here, making a very clear presence that this is Belizean territory. But also, it’s about protecting our territory, our waters, our terrain, from illegal encroachments, illegal fishing, drug trafficking. So this is a very, very important base and my message to them today was that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is here to support the work of our Belize Defense Force.”
In this week’s installment of The Bright Side, we traveled to Succotz, where we discovered the first school to earn the Wow factor by truly embodying the spirit of doing more. The MORE campaign stands out as one of the Ministry of Education’s most comprehensive and thrilling initiatives to date. Embracing five fundamental pillars, the campaign challenges schools to demonstrate their commitment to being more digital, more healthy, more involved, more inclusive, and more creative and innovative. Sabreena Daly tells us more.
Sabreena Daly, Reporting
Jianny Humes is a standard six student who shared with me her love of animation. It was after sitting in her first computer science class in standard four that she realized her interest in animation transitioned to technology in its entirety.
Jianny Humes
Jianny Humes, Student, Victorious Nazarene School “I like watching animation videos about how people use characters to animate. And then, we started getting computer classes in standard four, and that’s when I started to develop most of my interest in this class. We’ve been learning how to program. One of the things we’re doing is we’re almost gonna finish the course. So we’re doing course F right now. And we’re using artificial intelligence to try to figure out what happens if we do something wrong or we program it wrong, wrongly.”
Jeremy Yacab has a similar interest. He shared his understanding of the concept of artificial intelligence and its functions.
Jeremy Yacab
Jeremy Yacab, Student, Victorious Nazarene School “I like Computer Science. It’s one of my favorite subjects, to say.AI means artificial intelligence and it is all about putting information to the computer and it will detect what information you’re putting and what you’re not.”
Both of these students are enrolled at Victorious Nazarene Primary School in San Jose Succotz, Cayo District.
Under the tutelage of Amilcar Vasquez, the students are delving into artificial intelligence where they gain insight not only into the fundamentals, but also the diverse methods through which users can effectively prompt AI to execute instructions.
Amilcar Vasquez
Amilcar Vasquez, Computer Science Teacher, Victorious Nazarene School
“We were looking a little bit at machine learning and how data is used to train computers, and we were basically touching the fundamental concepts of being able to train the computer the right way. So what I did was I purposely asked them to train it the wrong way and see if their program, their AI gave the desired outcome, which they noticed it didn’t. So they went back and trained it properly. And a lot of big concepts come into mind, you have the power to do things the right way.”
An educator of fourteen years, Vasquez has been with the institution since the beginning of his career, teaching primarily information technology. He asserts the numerous advantages associated with exposing students to IT at the earliest possible stage.
Amilcar Vasquez, Computer Science Teacher, Victorious Nazarene School
“The direct benefit is definitely how they can accomplish better things at the high school level. I always have my students come back and say, you know what, I went to high school and it was a breeze. But when they don’t get information technology at the primary level, they struggle from high school. And in university, I’ve heard university professors say, you know, there are students taking Programming 1, Programming 2 classes, five times over because they simply don’t have the fundamentals, the basics.”
While the basics of Information Technology have been offered at this institution for over a decade, Belize’s education system has shifted to embracing technology through the inclusion of computer science and technology into its national curriculum. Shirley Humes is the principal at Victorious Nazarene and shared what this meant to the institution.
Shirley Humes
Shirley Humes, Principal, Victorious Nazarene School “Before the computer science and technology curriculum was implemented into the curriculum, we had embraced IT, which is information technology; teaching our students just the basics of how computers work. So that was like an extracurricular for us. But when computer science and technology was implemented into the curriculum, we embraced it because we saw that our students could have taken advantage of what was being offered, something very new to our country, something very new to our school curriculum. We have a lot of our students who are rural, they come from rural areas. And they don’t have the opportunity to explore with a device or to be able to use a device at home. So this would be the only place where that can happen. And it has paid off because we have seen many of our past students going into high school and excelling and doing well because a lot of the things that they have to do for their work is digital. So it was something that we thought would benefit our students.”
The Ministry of Education recently unveiled its ambitious MoRe Campaign, aimed at inspiring educators and institutions to elevate their commitment to student development and revolutionize education in Belize. MoRe is anchored by five pillars – fostering greater creativity and innovation, deepening involvement, promoting health, championing inclusivity, and embracing digital advancement – the ministry keenly acknowledges that Victorious Nazarene, a school in a rural community, has been embodying the spirit of “MoRe” long before the campaign’s inception.
Dian Maheia
Dian Maheia, C.E.O., Ministry of Education
“The MORE campaign is easily one of the most comprehensive, exciting campaigns that the Ministry of Education has ever run. Actually, it’s what we call an umbrella campaign because It has five pillars and the five pillars really encompass just about everything right now that schools are doing and the purpose of the more campaign is quite simply to showcase what schools are doing so that we can encourage schools, students, teachers, communities to do more and to be more for Belize. Who would have thought that the first feature under the pillar of “Be More Digital” would come from a rural school and what we’ve seen at that school is just a fantastic effort from the teacher, from the principal, the way that they’ve embraced the code.org curriculum. It’s being taught from Standard 2 to Standard 6 at that school.”
For students like Jeremy and Jianny, they’ve expressed that the knowledge they’ve gained will be of use as they further their education. But the reality is that in rural communities like Succotz, there are a considerable number of students who do not progress beyond primary education. In response to this challenge, Victorious Nazarene is committed to providing its students with a comprehensive education, ensuring that they are armed with every conceivable advantage for their future endeavors.
Jeremy Yacab, Student, Victorious Nazarene School “Well, I could use it farther when I go to high school.”
Sabreena Daly
“Do you feel like you’ll be prepared for high school when it comes to what you’ve been learning so far?”
Jeremy Yacab
“Yeah, because I really want to go to high school.”
Amilcar Vasquez, Computer Science Teacher, Victorious Nazarene School
“I always say this: What if, and it happens, what if one of my students doesn’t go to high school anymore? Are they prepared to face the real world with just what I taught? And that brings a lot of questions to us because it might be unheard of, maybe in the urban areas, but it does happen. You know, for example, in Succotz and villages, some of them graduate and go right on to life. So we want to prepare them for both.”
