Heartbreak in Belize City: 9-Year-Old Girl Dies After Bicycle Accident

A Belize City family is grappling with the loss of a young child tonight. Around six o’ clock last night, 9-year-old Amylie Augustine was pronounced dead after several efforts were made to revive her. Her mother, 36-year-old Coretta Apolonio, told police that Augustine fell off her bicycle while riding near their home on Reggae Street around 3 o’clock, and complained of pain in her abdomen. Apolonio says the child drank water around 5:50 p.m., and began to vomit blood, caught a seizure, and became unresponsive. Augustine was rushed to the hospital, where medics performed CPR, which proved unsuccessful. Police say swelling and small bruises were observed on the right side of Augustine’s abdomen. Managing Director at Love Foundation, Deborah Erskine expressed her condolences, saying that the child was a member of the Love Foundation Family.

Deborah Erskine, Managing Director, The Love Foundation: “Devaney is one of our youth ambassadors. She has been connected with the Love Foundation for several years. Her mother is very active in the Love Foundation programs so Amylie as an extension of that family is a Love Foundation family. The uncle is one of our subgrantees for another project that we have so they have been very active in the Yabra community. Devany is our peer helper coordinator right now wth a project that we’re working on so the family has been very much involved in the Love Foundation programs. I really can’t comment on the circumstances because I don’t know but it is a great loss. You know I have to say that Coretta, the mom, has been very much supportive. You know when we met with our funders on Wednesday Devany was one of the people who met with the funders that are here and they were very impressed with her. She’s a shadow councilor, she’s a member of the child advisory body, she’s very active. These children have been very active in their community and so we were asked by the funder if Devany, if all of our youth are as articulate and as passionate as her about changing her community and she is very much very articulate, very passionate. As I said the mother, Coretta, has always always been engaged with the community in civic engagement, she’s a counselor, she works with a lot of the children in the community so it’s just a tragic loss that her child would have passed on in this manner and you know we send our deepest condolences and you know we’ll be there for them.”

The child’s mother is a social worker.