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Where Are You Heading This Easter?

Whether you will travel this Easter by land or sea, the boats were out from early and so were the buses. Today, many people travelled to their destination for the Easter and News Five’s Marion Ali was at the bus and the water taxi terminals to captures those scenes. Here’s that report.

Marion Ali, Reporting

While almost everybody who will spend Easter in another part of the country away from home, travel on Holy Thursday this morning was not as chaotic as it can be known to get over at the Caribbean Sprinter Water Taxi Terminal near the Swing Bridge, the cargo manager, Joel Ah could talk to us because it wasn’t yet crowded.

Joel Ah, Cargo Manager, Caribbean Sprinter Water Taxi Terminal

“At the moment, it’s not that busy, but we expect to make it get busy by 1, 1:30, that’s the time we start to get busy about.”

Marion Ali

“Everybody coming in with luggage…”

Joel Ah

“Yeah, everybody coming in with luggage, and sometimes cargo, and that’s when we need fi deh pahn fi we game.”

Marion Ali

“So you have the boats on standby or you have to rent?”

Joel Ah

“We have our boats on standby and they are already available. So if in case we need our next boat, we have that ready.”

At the bus terminal, we caught up with Phillip Fawda Henry and Aldene Williams, who were waiting to catch their buses.

Aldene Williams, Traveler

“I’m here so that I can catch the bus.”

Marion Ali

“You’re heading where?”

Aldene Williams

“South.”

Marion Ali

“Okay. First time traveling for the Easter?”

Aldene Williams

“No, but first time travelling alone, yes.”

Phillip Fawda Henry, Traveler

“I haven’t done it in 15 years. I have 11 children. And seven are police officers there in the south, but I have not traveled in this location for quite a while So today i’m saying that i’m off to Placencia.”

Eaon Henry, who has made the bus terminal a place of employment, assured us that everything was progressing along orderly.

Eaon Henry, Entrepreneur

“Everything is alright. Everybody’s selling the tickets for the bus. Everybody’s purchasing the tickets for the Easter holiday. 0Tomorrow is Good Friday, so people don’t want to travel tomorrow because they will barely have any bus running tomorrow. So right now the crowd is coming today.”

Even in the chaos of everything, to ensure boat passenger safety and prevent a repeat of a previous mishap some years ago, Joel Ah assured that they turn on their boat engines before any passenger gets onboard.

Joel Ah

“The engines are turned on first and also the captain, they have their checklist, they check the engines – everything that needs to be checked, and they report it to their supervisor.”

Marion Ali for News Five.

How are Belizeans Celebrating Easter 2024?

Easter 2024 is upon us and with that comes various celebrations filled with travelling, food, and family. Whether it’s to Caye Caulker, Placencia, Dangriga or right at home, there many places and ways to celebrate in Belize. We checked in with a few people in Belize City to see how they are planning to spend the holiday this year.

Tanisha’s Creations Hot Cross Buns

Preparing and consuming hot cross buns is one of Belize’s long-standing Easter traditions. Wherever Belizeans are in the world, there is no Easter without hot cross buns. Tonight, we show you how Tanisha Burns of Tanisha’s Creation prepares her hot cross buns, the ingredients that she uses and what makes her buns special. News Five’s Paul Lopez brings us that story.

Improved Security Systems Coming to Belize

The Ministry of Economic Development is currently in the process of implementing several projects that aim to increase the quality of living in the country. One of those projects includes improved security systems across the country. Through funding from CABEI, the ministry is seeking to build half a dozen police stations in specific areas across the country. We spoke with the C.E.O. of the Ministry of Economic Development, Doctor Osmond Martinez for more details.

Dr. Osmond Martinez, C.E.O., Ministry of Economic Development

“Under the resilient rural police program, which is under CABEI, presently we are in the process of building six police stations. So, one of the police stations will be in Santa Elena, the other one in Belmopan, the third one in Caye Caulker, the fourth one in Belize City, the fifth one in San Narciso, and the sixth one in Bella Vista Village in the southern part of the country. And the aim is to start the buildings or to have groundbreaking by July of this year. Presently the consultants are doing the feasibility studies and they have completed the feasibilities for the first three polling stations, which is Santa Elena, a Belmopan and Bella Vista. The second project under that same under that same bank, CABEI is the citizen security project, which is it will be the phase two of the surveillance camera, which will have an integrated system to an E-nine-one-one system, but at the same time, we will integrate everything into a system where it will have an AI component. And we will be able to collect the data, especially for the police department and the police department is the one who will manage the data and also use it as a way of preventing crime.”

Tapping into Solar Energy

Big technological changes are coming to Belize. As previously reported, the University of Belize will soon be acquiring the country’s first forensic lab. This significant acquisition is just one of the projects in progress to advance Belize’s resources. According to the C.E.O. of the Ministry of Economic Development, Doctor Osmond Martinez, more focus is now being placed on solar energy.

Dr. Osmond Martinez, C.E.O., Ministry of Economic Development

“And then the other projects that are with is the forensic science lab, which the feasibility study is ongoing the forensic science lab will be at the University of Belize campus. That is where it will be established. It will be a modern foreign science lab, and so that will be very good for the country, but also to help us to educate our university students. Then with the Saudis, we have the territory hospital, which we have move on now that’s the-join Belmopan hospital. We will be signing the feasibility study sometime. I am hoping that by April or May, the latest. The feasibility studies for the surgery hospital and then along with those with the Saudi funds, we are also working in terms of getting the solar panels, the solar farms. And the first, twenty megawatts might start to come this year, it might be so the construction of the first, twenty megawatts will be done this year. And then the along with NCC, which we will be negotiating or Belize will be negotiating at a two hundred fifty million dollars grant. It’s a two hundred fifty million dollars grant that will be negotiated in Washington within the week of April fifteenth to the eighteenth of April of this year. So that again will be huge and that will have an impact within the education sector and the energy sector. Then we have with the World Bank, we’re doing the blue cities and beyond program and that will impact Belize City the sewer system drainage also Placencia Dangriga, San Pedro and also Punta Gorda. It’s our hope that Blue Cities and beyond program can help us to reduce poverty and at the same time to have climate resilient projects.”

Fifty Million Dollar Grant Approved For Belize

The Green Climate Fund is the world’s largest climate fund developed as a part of the historic Paris Agreement. It aims to mobilize funding to support developing countries to achieve their ambitions towards ensuring low emissions and climate resilience. Belize has received a fifty-million-dollar grant that will be used for the protection of the country’s environment. C.E.O. Osmond Martnez explained the significance.

Dr. Osmond Martinez, Minister of Economic Development

“Recently a fifty million dollars project was approved through the Green Climate Fund, and it’s the first of its kind. And what is important with that project is that is a grant, meaning free money for Belize. And there is no condition that they have asked us to give anything at the contrary. We are fighting for climate finance justice for our country, because Belize have done very well in terms of protection of the environment which means that the protection of the environment helps us in terms of turning carbon dioxide into oxygen and which keeps people alive. Therefore, Belize is a carbon sink country, but for generations, no, or for centuries, Belize has been a carbon sink country. And Belize didn’t receive any dollar or benefit for it. Now, we are saying, listen, through The Green Climate Fund Belize must get big projects, which will benefit the Belizean people.”

Indigenous Council Concerned Over Gustavo Requena’s Appointment

Pressure is mounting on the government over the appointment of Gustavo Requena as the Director of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs. Requena who is the brother of Cabinet Minister Oscar Requena, succeeded Greg Choc. Requena’s appointment did not come without concerns and criticism. The Toledo Alcaldes Association first fired off a press release saying they were not consulted and that Requena has publicly shared anti-Maya land rights sentiments. The association also expressed concerns over Requena’s familial relationship with the minister. Tonight, the Belize National Indigenous Council also expresses deep concern regarding Requena’s appointment. The council says that the government’s decision to appoint Requena is a lack of serious commitment to the plight of the Indigenous Peoples of Belize. The council says “What we are witnessing here is the setting up of an office that will be marred in partisan politics and from the eyes of the people lacking integrity.” According to the council, transparent selection processes are imperative for such a crucial position and Belize has individuals well-versed in indigenous and social matters.

Incidents of Multidimensional Poverty Down 10.1% in 2023

On Wednesday, the Statistical Institute of Belize published the findings of the Multidimensional Poverty Index, which is a direct measure of poverty across various dimensions of well-being such as health, education, employment, and living standards in Belize. The MPI seeks to move away from the single monetary dimension of measuring poverty and instead studies what percentage of the population is multidimensionally poor and what percentage of all the indicators poor households are deprived of. The findings of the MPI for September 2023 revealed that incidents of multidimensional poverty were down by ten-point one percent. Statistician Christian Orellana explains.

Christian Orellana, Statistician II, S.I.B.

“For the period September 2023 the incidence of multidimensional poverty is twenty-six point four percent. That means that twenty-six point four percent of the population is multidimensional poor. The intensity of multidimensional poverty is thirty eight point four percent. That means that on average, a poor household had a deprivation score of thirty eight point four percent. And our national MPI is zero point one zero one. We can also look at poverty statistics in two ways, for the total population of the country and for the households of the country, a total of one hundred three thousand niner hundred forty-four persons were multidimensional poor among twenty-four thousand ninety-six households. We now compare the 2023 MPI results to the 2021 MPI results. A decrease of ten point one percent was observed for the incidents. This is a result of thirty-eight thousand five hundred ninety-six individuals among eight thousand nine hundred two households coming out of being multidimensionally poor since the 2021 pandemic landscape, notably due to decrease in the share of the population that experienced deprivations in areas such as underemployment, food insecurity, employment, and cooking fuel. Now, when we compare the intensity between the two years, it can be observed that the severity of poverty among the poor remains the same with very little change from thirty-nine point two in 2021 to thirty-eight point four in 2023. It was observed that among the seventeen indicators, we saw improvements, with the exception of improved sanitation. But it is important to highlight the top five that saw the biggest decrease, and that is underemployment at 1fifteen percent food insecurity at ten point three percent cooking fuel at five point nine percent and unemployment at five point five percent.”

Aziel KU and CodeTech, Finding Tech Solution For Real World Challenges

App development may still be considered a niche market in Belize, as local technological advancements are finding their place in the day-to-day lives of Belizeans. Undoubtedly, however, as our society advances, the demand for innovative technological solutions will increase. That is why Aziel Ku and his team at Codetech are tapping into this market to provide everyday technological solutions for real-world challenges in business. The company’s name may not be familiar, but you may have likely interacted with some of their work. News Five’s Paul Lopez has more for us in tonight’s installment of Belize On Reel.

Paul Lopez, Reporting

Meet Aziel Ku, the owner of Codetech, a tech company based in Orange Walk Town that has been developing apps that make a difference.

Aziel Ku, Owner, Codetech

“We have been very blessed that God has given us options and our technology has now adapted really by the government to see its potential and they have embraced technology in moving forward, and the postal services reached out to us about the technology we have done. As Vistro we did live tracking, you could track the food order in real time and those were the components that helped a lot for the postal service. We worked with the sports council where they wanted a way to help federations and the ministry be self-reliant with fund raising both internationally and here locally. So we built a platform where they can share, sell tickets and fundraise and provide revenue for the different federation.”

Recently, Ku and his team collaborated with the Orange Walk Town Council on a software programme that allows drivers to renew their driver’s licence online. And the process is as simple as it gets. The licence holder simply opens the software, scans the barcode on their licence, and follows the steps provided, including paying online. As you heard, Ku is the developer behind Vistro, a popular delivery service app.

Aziel Ku

“My question is always, why do you want to do it, what is the reason. As a developer if you want to do it for money, it won’t work, because it is hard. And at the end of the day all you have is your passion. All I have is my passion, so when it is hard, no one is using it, you promote it, push it on Facebook, pay for ads, it doesn’t work then all you have is that dream and passion and that is what you need. That is where the project should start. Vistro didn’t make it in the first five months. We pushed it and nothing happened, until the sixth month we got one or two people that started to use it and realized how helpful it was and overnight thirty thousand people started to download it and we were there.”

Aziel Ku has been featured in the U.S. Embassy Entrepreneur Spotlight Initiative. He was also the recipient of the Belize Youth Award in the Innovation in Technology category. With his ability to develop innovative software, one would think that Ku spent years in school to develop the skills he now possesses. On the contrary, he says that he is self-taught.

Aziel Ku

“I learnt a lot of it online and practice and failing and burning a lot of computers. My passion is that I want to be someone that helps. I want to build stuff that helps people, make a difference and inspire other people and I found my gift is in technology to be able to understand and explain to others how they can use technology to help them forward. My story is not much different than anybody’s one. My mom is a taxi driver, my dad is a teacher, I just had to be passionate about it and go through it. So, I feel like it is niche, but it is because of the hard work.”

Recently, Ku and his team have been pushing their interactive artificial intelligence (AI) software called Edith. The Belize Postal Services is already using A.I. Centaur Communications is also using the service.

Aziel Ku

“She is an AI software that connects to company system. Centaur is one of our clients where she connects to their own internal software so people can chat, get an account information and balancer through messenger. We also developed Edith so anyone can use her. You can take a picture of a homework, a parent can do so and ask Edith to explain it in Spanish, Mandarin and she will break it down, provide questions, teachers can upload their curriculum to Edith and she will help them develop plans. That is our vision for this year.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.

Send in Your September Celebrations Theme Now

If you’ve always had a knack for themes, this is your chance to win some extra cash. The National Celebrations Commission launched the September theme competition for Belize at forty-three. The annual competition is open to anyone and the Director of the Institute of Creative Arts, Kim Vasquez went over the details of it for us.

Kim Vasquez, Director, Institute of Creative Arts

“We have this annual competition, and the cash prize is 1, 000. It’s open to anyone. So if you want to get your creative writing juices flowing you can send in a couple entries. Definitely you want to keep in mind, ideas like patriotism, unity, cultural identity, where we are with our development as a nation. Those are some things to brainstorm around if you want to participate in the competition.”

Marion Ali

“And the deadline?”

Kim Vasquez

“The deadline is the 26th of April and you can send your submissions in by email. You can go on the social media page, the Facebook page for the National Celebrations Commission. Or, if you want, you can drop them off by hand at the NICH headquarters at Government House.”

Marion Ali

“And you can submit more than one entry?

Kim Vasquez

“Oh, you can submit more than one entry, yes.”