New Drive to Level Parenting Support Across Belize

Belize is rethinking how it supports parents, and it’s starting with real conversations. Earlier today, government leaders, child advocates, and UNICEF came together to discuss parenting support across the country. The Parenting Guide and Policy Validation Workshop is part of a national push to update resources and make them more practical for everyday family life. Organizers are ditching the top-down approach, bringing multiple voices to the table to develop guidance that actually works. The aim is to give parents better tools, modernize outdated policies, and create stronger, healthier homes for Belizean children. News Five’s Shane Williams reports.

 

Shane Williams, Reporting

Parents don’t come with a handbook, but Belize is trying to write a better one. Child welfare advocates, government officials, and UNICEF teamed up today to sharpen the tools families rely on. At the Parenting Guide and Policy Validation Workshop, they rolled up their sleeves to review a revamped parenting guide and create a new national policy aimed at supporting moms, dads, and caregivers. The Department of Human Services’ Diana Pook says the initiative focuses on promoting positive parenting practices in situations unique to Belize.

 

Diana Pook, Human Development Coordinator, Department of Human Services

“After a consultation, what we noted was that different organizations use different information to do their parenting workshops for parents throughout the country of Belize. We have some organization using information from maybe the Caribbean, looking at Jamaica. Others might use information that they find online from the USA. Others might use information from Europe. So what we did based on what we found at the consultations, we looked at what Belize has and what is culturally appropriate for Belize and putting it both in the policy and looking at the guide as well.”

 

Shakira Sutherland, the director of the National Commission for Families and Children, says the policy is being shaped through collaboration and consultation to ensure all well-intentioned organizations are singing from the same hymn sheet.

 

Shakira Sutherland, Director, NCFC

“There are other entities that are out there doing parenting sessions as well. And so I believe that these parenting entities do not or they are not aware of the National Parenting Committee. And it’s important for us to all be on the same page in terms of parenting, especially with our Belizean children. So this guide has a national policy that is going to be an overarching – has overarching factors and information in regards to our children especially in this era.”

 

UNICEF Belize says investing in parenting support can have long-term benefits for children and communities alike.

 

Michelle Segura McGann, Child Protection Officer, UNICEF Belize

“UNICEF, WHO, and PAHO have recognized that evidence-based parenting programs are accelerators to reduce violence, improve health and nutrition and to accomplish the sustainable development goals. And so we’re here as partners to the Government of Belize, COMPAR, the Ministry of Human Development, to be able to bring all the actions going on countrywide because we have care for child development, we have roving caregiver programs that are ongoing, nutrition programs, education programs, ending violence against children programs. All of this encompass parenting. Parenting is a health issue, an education issue, a social protection issue.”

 

Organizers say the aim is to strengthen families by improving parenting support, communication, and coordination across the country, so whether it’s a mother in Corozal, Belize City, or Punta Gorda, she can access the same level of support. Shane Williams for News Five.

 

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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