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After several years on pause, the Belize Police Department has officially revived its national “Du Di Rait Ting” program, an initiative aimed at recognizing and rewarding students who demonstrate positive behavior, leadership, and good citizenship both in and out of the classroom. The program, which is spearheaded by the Police Department’s Community Oriented Policing Unit, returned to the national stage today with an awards ceremony held at the Old Belize Pavilion. Students from across the country were recognized for their hard work, discipline, and commitment to making positive choices. The initiative has long been viewed as one of the department’s most successful youth engagement programs, encouraging young Belizeans to stay focused on their education while promoting values such as respect, responsibility, and community service. Addressing those in attendance, Commissioner of Police Dr. Richard Rosado said modern policing extends far beyond responding to crime. He explained that meaningful engagement with communities, particularly young people, remains an essential part of effective law enforcement.
Dr. Richard Rosado, Commissioner of Police: “As the Commissioner of Police I am truly happy that we were able to reintroduce the Do the Right Thing Program after it was discontinued seven years ago. And it it an important opportunity for us to highlight and engage students or students at high schools, highlight the challenges they went through and how they have overcome these challenges. The National Award is basically based on selection from countryside, all the high schools, all the schools that participated and the top five were selected. I would yield that to the Commander of Community Policing to explain the process that they went through to do the selection because it does involve a number of schools, it does involve a number of individuals that did the selection. We believe that community engagement, youth engagement is something that the police department must engage in. Law enforcement is more than just enforcing the law, it’s also engaging the youth in positive ways hence the reintroduction.”
Students honored during today’s ceremony represented schools from every district and were selected based on their conduct, academic effort, leadership qualities, and willingness to serve as positive role models among their peers. The second-place winner, Erguin Alvarez, spoke on his experience in program.
Erguin Alvarez, Student: “We came in accordance that I was going to be the coordinator to coordinate everything like get our mentors, get the people that need the help and that really helped me shape myself into the leader that I am today. So what the Do The Right Thing Program basically did was just enhance that sort of feeling that I already had and showcase my talent to the wonderful people of Belize. Well to be honest I didn’t know anything at all until right now because I wasn’t told anything that I won second place so it was a very big surprise to find out here in person and live so that was a very wonderful and heartwarming feeling.”
Police officials say they hope the return of the program will inspire more young Belizeans to make good decisions and recognize that positive actions, no matter how small, can have a lasting impact on their communities
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