Can the Belize Compact Save At-Risk Youths?

Belize’s new U.S. Ambassador is looking to the hundred-and-twenty-five-million Belize Compact as a possible lifeline for young people at risk. Andre Bauer says he has reviewed reports showing increased hard-drug use among Belizean youths and wants to help tackle the problem by creating meaningful opportunities. He believes the compact could fund initiatives that steer vulnerable young people toward education, training and employment. But first, Bauer says, Belize and the Millennium Challenge Corporation must have a serious conversation about whether the agreement can support that mission.

 

Andre Bauer, U.S. Ambassador to Belize

“Well over a hundred million dollars. There will be opportunities for a lot of Belizeans with that money. Not only are we going to look at trying to improve your energy. We are also going to look at trying to change lives. The next few years I really want to see opportunities. I read in one of your posts just the other day disappointing news about continued expansion of people using drugs and that really concerned me because I know that path is not a good path to go down. So, I think we need to have a conversation about what we can do for our young people. How can we show them a path to say that is not the path they want to go down. We do that by opportunities, structures, by having uncomfortable conversations. So, a priority to me is what we can do as the United States Government to help the people, the youth and you have a disproportionate large number of youths in this country. So, I think we need to have a serious conversation engaging, all we can, the MCC to see how some of those dollars can be spent to lift those young people up, to give them an opportunity, whether it is an apprenticeship, a trade deal, I want to see us do all we can to change opportunities for Belizeans.”

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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