Government Hopes to Distribute Funds for Annual Christmas Cheer Program

The government is hoping to disburse funds for the annual Christmas Cheer program for constituencies countrywide. The program was launched under the previous administration and uses public funds to provide social assistance to those in need during the Christmas season. Yesterday, Prime Minister John Briceno spoke on the government finding the funds for the program and whether he believes it’s sustainable. 

John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “We still have to within the budget I guess we’ll have to find the money. It is something that the previous government started and you know, once you take it out of the box you can’t put it back. So it is expected that we will make some money available. So we are working on that and I’m hoping that before the end of the month we’ll know exactly the amount that we’ll be able to use for Christmas. But it is in our interest to try to help especially those that don’t have. I mean, again, I repeat, I don’t want you for a minute to believe that I’m gloating, I’m not. We’ve done well by any measurement, by any metrics. We’ve done exceedingly well. When you look at the amount of people that are employed, salaries have gone up, poverty has been reduced substantially. There’s a renewed interest in Belize, Belizeans generally on a whole feel confident about the direction that the government or the country is going. So we have everything to be able to continue this path, but yet there’s still a lot of people that are having it hard. Global inflation unfortunately President Biden and his team could not find a way how to explain inflation. And the opposition, of course, you know, they say well we have an answer, but the truth of the matter that it’s global, it’s all over, and they did not increase prices on the goods that are being imported. And that had a big effect on the elections in the United States. So we are cognizant of that. And we recognize that we have to continue to find more creative ways to try to help Belizeans. And we still have a few ideas that I believe could help, especially the ones that need.”