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Primary schoolers march for Daniel Matura, 11

CrimePrimary schoolers march for Daniel Matura, 11

The children demand “peace and justice, now!” Is anyone listening?

Fueled by grief over the sudden loss of one of their own – 11-year-old Daniel Matura, a standard three student killed on Monday morning, May 21, and propelled by frustration by the authorities’ seeming inability to stop the crime wave that has taken fifty-two lives to date this year, including twenty-five in Belize City, it was the turn of students of the Muslim Community Primary School on Central American Boulevard, accompanied by their older fellow students from Excelsior High School and St. John Vianney R.C. down the street on Fabers Road, to take to the streets, demanding peace and justice, NOW!

Educators at Muslim Community put the event together on Tuesday after learning of Matura’s death and trying to console his grieving classmates.

Today, they marched from the school grounds down Central American Boulevard, making a virtual “stations of the cross” of a neighborhood that has seen no less than six murders in the span of a month and a half – Caesar Ridge Road, Kraal Road, Benbow Street, North Creek Road, and past their late classmate’s residence on the Boulevard.

Chants of “What do we want? Peace and justice! When do we want it? Now!” and the Muslim Arabic greeting, “As-salaam-alaikum (Peace be unto you)” rang out, as the children led the adults through the streets, carrying posters of their own design.

Accompanied by concerned residents and community activists, the group, according to MCPS principal Lana Ahmad, sent a clear message to the purveyors of violence: we want our streets back.

“…We have lost one of our own, one of our young children, a student who had every potential to be a productive member of this society. God knows best; God knows why the child left us…the children and the teachers, and other concerned members, friends of our community, came together and decided that we do this, so that we could get our message out.”

The principal noted that her children “have a fear of walking the streets because they don’t know where a bullet will come from,” and challenged authorities to implement what is already in place, including the death penalty.

Excelsior teacher Patrick Thompson said his school decided to join the march, because in light of Matura’s passing, “…we all know that someday it might hit our doors, so we decided, Belize is all our country, so we need to all unite in peace, to see how we can end the crime and violence in our community.”

According to Thompson, while the police are to be commended for improving their response times to crime, the Government needs “to open their minds and listen to the youth of this generation,” and he called for the public to continue assisting the police in solving crime.

Echoing that sentiment is former MCPS principal and teacher, Abdul Nunez. “If the Government can’t do it, we are prepared and ready to help you…,” he said.

Nunez described his students as “petrified, scared to death that they could be the next victim” of gun violence, but when we asked what it would take to achieve the goal, Nunez pointed to the march as it passed next to our vantage point on Benbow Street and explained:

“What it would take to achieve that goal is exactly what is happening here, getting the youth mobilized and involved. It is their country, and their safety is dependent on how they participate actively in getting the streets of Belize safe. The Government can’t do it; they have proven that time and time again, so it’s time for the youth…”

When Amandala asked if he meant that they can’t do it alone, he responded, “They can’t do it alone, so it’s time for the youth to get actively involved, and take active participation and leadership…”

To that, Sister Ahmad added that parents need to take a larger role in their child’s development: “Your child should not be affecting my child in a negative way. Our children should complement each other when we meet…you see this child walking, doing something wrong, it is the adult’s responsibility to stop and say, ‘Baby, that’s not right; don’t do that, go home,’ and if this child goes home and complain, the mother should say, ‘What were you doing?

“If that lady took time to talk to you it’s because you were doing something wrong. Don’t curse, rail up and grumble ‘bout ‘Who is she to tell my pikni ting,’ because that’s how we have become now – ‘dah no my pikni so dah no my business’. That is a lie! Each child is everybody’s children…all of us need to be responsible.”

According to the principal, the march is intended to plant the seed of change in the community and to reinforce in her charges that they are “beautiful children and deserve the best, just like the children on the North side. These children are no worse than anybody else’s children, and they need to start understanding that, that each child has a right to the best that God has provided on this earth for each and every one of us.”

Moving forward, Ahmad called for the government to move beyond the fragile gang truce signed last September to full peace, a call echoed in the official theme of the march, “From Truce to Peace.”

At the school itself, she told Amandala, counseling and training for teachers in conflict resolution is balanced with nurture and consistent love and support for their charges. MCPS students leaving Standard 6 have places in many of the top city high schools, and the “name-brand high schools” have sent their students to recruit new students for the new school year.

Each of the 270 students attending Sister Ahmad’s school is taught to mind his/her behavior and self-worth, contributing to the student staying out of trouble. The school has plans for further intervention to ensure that today’s work is built on and not forgotten.

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