On a Thursday in late July 2026, 23 residents from two rural villages in Orange Walk, Belize – San Antonio and Santa Cruz – marked a major milestone for local disaster preparedness by graduating as the nation’s second cohort of Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) members. Unlike professional emergency personnel who often require travel time to reach rural communities, these newly trained first responders are based directly in the villages they serve, ready to step into action immediately after an emergency strikes, before external professional support can arrive.
Over the course of their training, participants mastered a broad suite of critical emergency skills ranging from foundational disaster preparedness and life-saving first aid to fire safety protocols, light search and rescue operations, emergency radio communications, and post-disaster damage assessment. Program organizers intentionally designed the cohort to include diverse representation across the community: members from local education institutions, public health services, village councils, youth groups, and independent community residents all participated, reflecting a core belief that meaningful community resilience can only be built when every segment of a community contributes.
Andrea Grosvenor, Business Development Manager at the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), which provided technical support for the initiative, emphasized the inclusive vision behind the project. “This project intentionally brought together representatives from the education and health sectors, village councils, youth, and other community members, recognising that resilience requires the participation of the entire community,” Grosvenor explained.
Daniel Mendez, National Emergency Coordinator for Belize’s National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO), which led the implementation of the CERT program, framed the expansion of community first responder teams as a cornerstone of national efforts to build safer, more self-reliant communities. Speaking directly to the graduating class, Mendez noted that the training was far from easy, requiring commitment, collaborative teamwork, and courage from all participants. “Community resilience starts here at the community where you are going to be able to help each other first before help arrives,” he told graduates, reminding them “Remember that you are NEMO” – a nod to their role as the first line of emergency response for their home communities.
Abdiel Teyul, Chairman of San Antonio Village, spoke on behalf of all 23 graduates, highlighting the transformative impact the team will have for the two neighboring villages. Located in a region vulnerable to seasonal hurricanes and flooding, Teyul explained that the trained cohort leaves San Antonio and Santa Cruz far better equipped to handle emergency events before outside help arrives. He urged his fellow graduates to keep their core mission front of mind: “Remember to always serve with empathy, with the safety of lives as a priority.”
To support the new responders in their work, each graduate received a personalized emergency response kit for on-the-ground use. The village councils of both San Antonio and Santa Cruz also received dedicated coordination equipment to strengthen their ability to organize local response efforts during large-scale disasters.
The CERT training program is funded by the European Union under the Building Resilience to Climate and Hazard Impacts in the Caribbean (BRICS) programme, marking a key investment in regional climate adaptation and community safety. This 2026 graduating cohort from Orange Walk follows the first ever CERT graduation, which took place in Toledo district last year, as NEMO continues to roll out community-focused emergency response capacity across the country.