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Ecumenical student tells it like it is

LettersEcumenical student tells it like it is

Dear Editor,

Allow me to introduce myself. I am a 16-year-old male fourth form student of Ecumenical High School in the Stann Creek District. Between the 20th and 30th of November 2012, I was deployed on my school’s work experience program. The program is a two-week course designed to give us, the high school seniors, the opportunity to go out into the world of work for two weeks and get a first-hand experience of what it is really like to be a part of a work place.

I was assigned to the Vector Control Unit (Stann Creek Regional Office), which is a branch of the Ministry of Health. The major responsibility of this unit is to control the vectors prevalent in the area. The most common one is the mosquito. In Dangriga itself, the problem is not too bad, so the concentration of the work is conducted in the villages of southern Belize – Red Bank, Georgetown, Maya Mopan, and Cowpen to name a few. In these areas dengue and malaria cases can pop up frequently, and the team needs to be able to get the right amount of contact hours in these localities to ensure that the diseases are treated and kept under control.

With an office based in Dangriga, and most of the personnel residing in the same location, transportation is an essential part of the job. While on my work experience, transport was an issue. On my first day on the job the team was dispatched to conduct business in Independence, a village which is approximately fifty miles away from Dangriga. The means of transportation was an old, beat-up 1996 Toyota Hilux. This vehicle was in a deplorable state. The newest thing on it was the blue colored government plates. I sat in the cab, and the harsh black smoke coming from the exhaust was terrible. I felt sorry for the employees who had to ride in the back, as many of their uniforms were messed up.

When we returned to Dangriga later that day, the vehicle was releasing smoke at a dangerous rate, and the second day, the driver informed me that he had parked the vehicle. He was upset because, believe it or not, the said Hilux was just overhauled! Now for the remainder of the week, the operations were crippled, and I did not get the opportunity to see the rest of the duties of Vector Control, which made my work experience less comprehensive. Therefore, I would like to appeal to the Minister of Health and the relevant authorities to do something to remedy this situation with the provision of reliable vehicles. The Vector Control Unit often flies under the radar as the day-to-day work they do is not always seen by the public, but they are a group that are working diligently with limited resources.

Think back to 2005, when cases of Dengue and malaria were at an all-time high, with over 700 reported cases; now in 2012 they are less than 100! They are important field officers equal to any other government workers and should be treated the same. The Ministry of Education gets vehicles, Finance, Agriculture, etc. Health is very important, so attention should be given to them in similar fashion. So please, whoever is in charge, make changes urgently, because having a hazardous vehicle disgracing blue plates says a lot about the people put in charge.

Respectfully Yours
Omique N. Ramos

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