分类： society

As cities across the globe race to adopt fully automated, cashless public transit systems, Belize City’s growing electric bus network is proving that some core elements of public service cannot be replicated by technology. At the heart of this contrast is Bernalita Lewis, a conductor whose consistent warmth and dedication have turned ordinary daily commutes into welcoming experiences for riders of all ages and backgrounds.

For thousands of Belize City residents who rely on the e-bus system for work, school, and daily errands, Lewis’s smile has become a beloved fixture of their trips. Whether she is greeting schoolchildren as they climb aboard, assisting workers navigating rush-hour crowds, or helping elderly passengers settle into their seats, her role extends far beyond the basic responsibilities printed on a job description. Beyond collecting fares—both in cash and through the city’s new contactless payment system—Lewis maintains order on crowded routes, helps riders with disabilities board safely, answers questions about route schedules, and introduces new users to the e-bus’s modern amenities, from free on-board WiFi to USB charging ports.

Erin Garnett, Director of Communications for the Belize City Council, explained that Lewis’s contributions have not gone unnoticed by riders or city leadership. “Most of the public comments we get about the service highlight how pleasant she is,” Garnett said. “A welcoming smile and respectful treatment make a huge difference in public transit. That is something technology just cannot replicate.”

Lewis’s six-year tenure with the city began in the municipal enforcement unit before she moved to her current role with the e-transit department, giving her unique experience in keeping routes running smoothly while prioritizing rider comfort. Just months ago, the single mother reached a major personal milestone: in September 2025, she received the keys to a newly built home of her own, leaving behind a leaking rental property that offered little protection during hurricane season.

“It means a lot, especially for my kids,” Lewis said of her new home. “The old place wasn’t really a home—you’d sit inside and watch rain pour through the roof. Now I can sit and enjoy the sound of rain on my roof. It feels good, it’s exciting.”

This week, the Belize City Council formally recognized Lewis’s quiet, consistent contributions to the e-bus system, shining a spotlight on a role that many commuters might take for granted. While city officials have long-term plans to transition the e-bus system to a fully digital, fully automated fare system, Garnett emphasized that the shift will be a gradual, multi-year process. For many local residents, particularly older Belizeans, cash remains the preferred payment method, and many still feel more comfortable interacting with a person than a machine when navigating new services.

In an era where more and more transit systems are phasing out conductor roles entirely, Belize City’s approach offers a middle ground: blending new electric bus technology with the irreplaceable value of human connection. Commuters echo this sentiment, noting that in a world increasingly dominated by automation and digital screens, small acts of kindness—a friendly greeting, a helping hand, a patient answer to a question—are the details that make public transit feel like a community service, not just a trip from point A to point B. Zenida Lanza reported this story for News Five.

In a landmark step toward strengthening child and family welfare across the nation, Belize has launched a new coordinated effort to standardize and localize parenting support resources, bringing together government bodies, child welfare advocates, and UNICEF for a foundational policy workshop on May 7, 2026.

Ditching the outdated top-down policy development model that has left support fragmented for years, stakeholders gathered for the Parenting Guide and Policy Validation Workshop to co-design a unified national parenting framework tailored to the specific cultural and social context of Belize. The initiative addresses a longstanding gap: for years, organizations offering parenting education across the country have relied on inconsistent, externally sourced materials—some pulling guidance from Caribbean neighbors like Jamaica, others adopting resources from the U.S. or Europe, none aligned to Belize’s unique community needs.

Diana Pook, Human Development Coordinator at Belize’s Department of Human Services, explained that the new framework grows directly from nationwide community consultations that revealed the scope of the inconsistency. “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,” Pook said. “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, director of the National Commission for Families and Children (NCFC), emphasized that the collaborative, consultative process is designed to unify the work of the dozens of independent entities offering parenting support across Belize. Many of these groups have operated in isolation for years, unaware of the National Parenting Committee and lacking aligned guidance to serve families consistently. “It’s important for us to all be on the same page in terms of parenting, especially with our Belizean children,” Sutherland noted. The new national policy will serve as an overarching, up-to-date reference that reflects modern challenges facing Belizean families today.

UNICEF Belize, which has partnered with the Belizean government and local agencies on the initiative, says that investment in evidence-based parenting support delivers widespread, long-term public benefits. Michelle Segura McGann, Child Protection Officer at UNICEF Belize, noted that global health and development bodies including UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and the Pan American Health Organization have all identified evidence-based parenting programs as key drivers to advance global sustainable development goals. These programs reduce violence against children, improve health and nutrition outcomes, and support holistic child development.

“Parenting is a health issue, an education issue, a social protection issue,” McGann explained, adding that the new framework ties together a range of ongoing national programs focused on child development, from roving caregiver initiatives to nutrition schemes, education access efforts, and campaigns to end violence against children.

The core goal of the national push is to eliminate geographic disparities in access to quality parenting support. Moving forward, organizers say, no matter where a family lives—whether in the northern district of Corozal, the urban center of Belize City, or the southern town of Punta Gorda—they will be able to access the same consistent, culturally appropriate level of support to build healthy, strong homes for children. The report was filed by News Five’s Shane Williams from the workshop.

In what has become a defining moment for child welfare reform in Belize, a widely shared viral video depicting alleged abuse by a serving police officer against his stepchild has forced the small Central American nation to confront long-simmering gaps in its approach to child discipline and protection. The footage, which features officer Philip Garbutt, has split public opinion sharply across the country: while thousands have voiced outrage over what they label clear child abuse, a significant portion of the public has defended the actions as a traditional form of strict parental discipline, laying bare a deep cultural divide on the boundaries of punishment for children.

Child protection advocates emphasize that the incident is far more than an isolated case of parental violence. Instead, they argue, it lays bare a systemic failing: Belize’s child protection framework has long operated on a reactive model, only intervening after harm has already occurred to vulnerable children, rather than putting proactive measures in place to stop abuse before it starts.

UNICEF’s Belize office has now called for an urgent national shift, moving beyond public anger toward tangible policy and systemic change that prioritizes prevention of violence against children. Michelle Segura McGann, Child Protection Officer for UNICEF Belize, outlined the organization’s path forward for the country.

“Our role is to support the government of Belize in strengthening child safeguarding,” Segura McGann explained. “Currently, we are working to build out a coordinated national child protection mechanism, led by the Ministry of Human Development, Family Support and Gender Affairs and the High Court. This new framework will bring all relevant stakeholders together to address child violence through an evidence-based approach.”

Segura McGann stressed that the current system is structured to respond to abuse after it happens, when the damage to children is already done. “We need to shift from a reactive model to a proactive one that centers prevention,” she said. This call is backed by data: a 2023 national evaluation of Belize’s child protection system found clear evidence that widespread preventative infrastructure is urgently needed to reduce rates of child violence across the country.

This report is a transcript of a televised evening newscast, with Kriol language content transcribed using a standardized spelling system.

Opening this week at the University of Belize’s Faculty of Health Sciences, the 2026 International Social Work Research Conference has drawn global attention to the intergenerational scars of colonialism that continue to shape mental health and social outcomes across Caribbean communities. Co-hosted by three academic institutions — the University of Belize, Galen University, and California Baptist University — the five-day gathering convenes a diverse cross-section of stakeholders: practicing social workers, academic researchers, graduate and undergraduate students, and grassroots mental health advocates, all united by a shared goal of unpacking historical harm and advancing inclusive healing practices.

Central to conference discussions is the urgent question of how unaddressed colonial exploitation, displacement, and cultural erasure have created cycles of generational trauma that persist in Belize and the broader Caribbean region decades, even centuries, after formal colonial rule ended. Attendees are not only documenting the widespread impact of this trauma on community well-being, but also collaborating to design culturally responsive care models that center indigenous and local knowledge systems, rather than relying on one-size-fits-all frameworks imported from high-income Western nations. Organizers and participants alike share a core vision: to leverage evidence-based research and community-centered social work to build more equitable, healthy, and self-determined societies across the region.

Despite this momentum, attendees acknowledge a major systemic barrier remains: many national and regional development stakeholders still frame mental health as a secondary, low-priority issue, rather than a foundational pillar of sustainable national growth for Belize. Conference organizers hope that the collective findings and conversations from the event will help shift public and policy discourse, making the case that addressing historical trauma and expanding access to mental health care is critical to unlocking long-term social and economic progress for Belize’s communities.