The need for a resident Social Worker has been a long awaited service for the residents of San Pedro. The presence of this much needed office will be credited for the further positive growth of our children here in San Pedro. The San Pedro Sun met with Mr. Adan Kay, Community Development Officer for San Pedro and Caye Caulker.
Mr. Kay possesses a Bachelor’s Degree in General Studies and has been employed by the Ministry of Human Development for over ten years. He started well over ten years ago, when he was stationed here in San Pedro. As the island was then much smaller, and there was the lack of a permanent office space, he was on the island three days of the week and worked out of Belize City for two days which lasted six months. After which, he was transferred to Orange Walk Town.
In Orange Walk, he worked mainly in the service of child protection. He brings with him extensive on the job training, with his most recent being a two week seminar training which he completed in Panama.
Services that will be available at the new office include: main focus on child protection, domestic violence, community rehabilitation – this entails dealing with all young persons who come in contact with the law, first time offenders as well as troubled teenagers.
In speaking with The Sun, Mr. Kay commented; “The experience I have is quite a lot. I have noticed lots of issues that youth are facing here on the island. I am more aware as in my past post, it was required that I travel to San Pedro to deal with some of my caseloads, as the second party would often be working out here. Now that we are stationed here on the island, we hope to be bringing with us all the services that Human Development has to offer.”
Mr. Kay spoke of the difference between working at a district office and running an office as such here on the island, “When in the district we handle just one particular area. Mine for example, was Child Protection. There are other officers that handle just domestic violence and so forth. However, here in San Pedro, the work load is very different as I will be handling all aspects of social issues here on the island.”
Mr. Kay hopes that with an office based here on the Island, the Ministry of Human Development will be able to work with the other ministries here to acquire assistance and provide much needed programs. “I believe that many of times in the past, assistance here on the island came through the Minister more than anything, but now that the department is here we do hope to provide certain services for areas where education facilities are not that easily accessible – assistance for schools. I’ve realized schools are one of the major things – but eventually it will trickle down to social issues. In some cases children are out of school, not because they don’t want to, but because the only ones the parents could afford are over packed. We hope to look into these issues and others and together, within the various Government Departments, find solutions.”
Mr. Kay’s office will be working hand in hand with the education office, the police department, the court system, immigration and labor department. The office is located beneath the San Pedro Town Council, across from the Education Office. The office is scheduled to be opened Mondays – Wednesdays 8am – noon and 1pm – 5pm. Thursdays and Fridays have been set aside for field work and investigations. The office does not presently have a land phone line; however that number will be published as soon as it becomes available.
