Belize Launches Wellness Week 2026

Belize has joined countries across Central America and the Dominican Republic in observing Wellness Week 2026.  The Ministry of Health and Wellness officially launched the week under the theme, “Promoting Health, Transforming Environments.” The initiative focuses on helping people make healthier choices while creating homes, schools, workplaces and communities that support healthy living.  This year’s observance comes as Belize holds the Pro Tempore Presidency of the Central American Integration System, SICA. Minister of Health and Wellness Kevin Bernard says the activities are intended to encourage Belizeans to take a more active role in protecting their health.

Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health and Wellness: “This is happening across the region. Today we did ours because we had a national holiday yesterday. But again it’s to, apart from the pilot project that we had done over the past six months, we’re now going into these activities trying to ensure that these type of activities such as mental health issues, workplace, wellness centers, another program that allows one employees or any organization to come up with initiatives that make people and make Belizeans live a better and healthier choice. And that’s what we are launching here today in terms of Wellness Week. So there will be a lot of activities. As we said, people need to get to know their numbers. There will be screening activities. And at the end of the day, as my message said, it’s not about what we do in this week but what comes after, what improvements are you seeing, what other choices people are making that will make their life better. Will they be eating healthier, are they doing more walk, more exercise, making better health choices and so that’s what the activity really wants to promote and we hope that as you know, NCDs is one of the leading factors in the region and in Belize is no different. And so we have to keep on getting the information of educating our Belizean people on the effects of NCDs and for them to make better choices in life because these are all preventable illnesses. And so the ministry as the lead in terms of Belize having the pro-tempore is leading the initiative but we are also ensuring that in Belize we are doing activities throughout across the regions to better inform the Belizean public and for them to be able to make better choices in health.”

Wellness Week runs from September 22 to 25, with activities centred on nutrition, physical activity, mental wellbeing and preventive healthcare. These include nutrition workshops, healthy-cooking demonstrations, BELIZE MOVES sessions, yoga and mindfulness activities, workplace wellness initiatives, school sports and community fitness events.  Kathleen Azueta Cho spoke about the mental-health component of Wellness Week and the importance of recognising that emotional wellbeing is part of a person’s overall health. She also highlighted the “Know Your Numbers” campaign, which encourages Belizeans to monitor important health indicators and understand what those numbers mean for their risk of developing noncommunicable diseases.

Kathleen Azueta Cho, Technical Advisor for the Health Education and Community: “We have Mind in Motion which places huge emphasis on the mental health aspect and we have yoga sessions. We have stress management sessions taking place. And then on Thursday, we have know your numbers which places an emphasis on preventative screenings, getting your blood pressure numbers checked, your glucose measurements. Then on Friday we culminate with the theme “Active communities, Stronger Region” and that places an emphasis on physical activity. And here in Belmopan we’ll be having our big Socathon. We encourage everyone to come out, run, walk, dance, and it’ll be hosted by Karen Rosito. So we really want to encourage everybody to take part in all the activities that we have throughout the week. Given the burden of non-communicable diseases that are some of the leading causes of death and illness and premature death in our country, diseases like cancer, heart disease, diabetes and hypertension. And most of these conditions are linked to risk factors which are modifiable.”

The Ministry says many risk factors associated with noncommunicable diseases can be modified. These include unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, tobacco use and harmful alcohol consumption.  The week’s programme also includes health screenings, community fitness activities and SOCATHON 2026 in Belmopan.  The Ministry is encouraging Belizeans to participate and help create healthier environments across the country.