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Background on Belize and the Toledo Region
Belize, formerly British Honduras, is a small, officially English-speaking country in Central America. Of its 300,000 people, most are of mixed African, Native American, or European descent. Over ten percent are pure-blooded Mayan, most of whom live in the Toledo region. The quality of life in Belize pales in comparison to that of the United States. Annual per capita income in Belize is one-sixth the U.S. average, and infant mortality is nearly five times as high. Its indicators for income and infant mortality fall below the averages for Central America. Measured by the UNDP Human Development Index, Belize’s quality of life also trails the majority of the English-speaking Caribbean. Further, in the entire Western Hemisphere, Belize ranks above only Bolivia and Haiti–the two poorest countries in the hemisphere–in terms of access to adequate sanitation (mainly meaning toilets). Only 25 percent of rural Belizeans and 71 percent of urban dwellers have access to adequate sanitation; those without are at high risk of serious and sometimes deadly diseases. Moreover, these national indicators hide wide regional disparities.
Toledo is Belize's southernmost region--at once its most lush and pristine as well as its poorest and least developed. Fifty-six percent of Toledo's population is indigent compared to 11 percent across Belize as a whole. This means that half of Toledo's citizens live in households that cannot satisfy basic food needs and maintain the healthy existence of their members. Not surprisingly, Toledo has the highest rate of malnourished children in the country (over 44 percent of Toledo’s children have stunted growth). Illiteracy is also high at 38 percent in Toledo versus 23 percent countrywide. Illiteracy among the Mayan population is 52 percent. The region has been plagued by chronic poverty for several reasons. Most notable is the lack of education and infrastructure systems comparable to those in other regions of the country. This region of dense jungle and heavy rains has few paved roads, meaning that Toledo's citizens are fairly isolated.
Most of Toledo's population live in thatched-roofed huts without electricity or running water.An acute lack of services compounds the misery of poverty in Toledo. The majority of Toledo's population still relies on kerosene and lives in thatched-roofed huts, while most other Belizeans use electricity and live in concrete homes. Malaria is also widespread. Moreover, a large number of the political refugees who have fled to Belize from other Central American countries over the last few decades have settled in Toledo, putting even greater pressure on substandard education, health, water, and sanitation services.
Over 60 percent of Toledo's 28,000 citizens are Mayan, and this figure reaches 75 percent in the region's rural areas. Traditional Mayan ways set most of Toledo apart culturally from the rest of Belize. Many of Toledo's rural citizens speak either Kekchi Mayan or Mopan Mayan, and they learn English only if they attend school. Lack of bilingual education means Mayan children are behind from their first day of kindergarten, while lack of fluent English limits later educational and economic activities.
Moreover, the centuries-old Mayan lifestyle is increasingly rubbing up against the global economy, with possibly disastrous consequences for this already disenfranchised group. Subsistence agriculture based on corn and rice forms the basis of the rural Toledo economy. Increasingly, though, men and women work on plantations producing crops for export. While cash incomes bring opportunity, they also bring trouble. Alcohol abuse among men, leading to abuse of and malnourishment of women and children, is becoming more prevalent. Further, traditional communal land tenancy patterns give Mayans as a whole an insecure footing in the face of impending economic development and the government's temptation to sell traditional Mayan lands to foreign logging companies.
- Sources:
- Government of Belize; Population and Housing Censuses, 2000
- National Committee for Families and Children and UNICEF/Belize; The Right to a Future: A Situation Analysis of Children in Belize; 1997
- National Human Development Advisory Committee; Belize 2002 Poverty Assessment Report; 2004
- National Human Development Advisory Committee; Belize 1996 Poverty Assessment Report; 1996
- Population Reference Bureau; World Population Data Sheet; 2006
- United Nations Children’s Fund, Belize; A World Fit for Children; 2004
- United Nations Development Programme and National Human Development Advisory Committee; Belize Taking Stock: National Human Development Report; 1997
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