Belize commemorates Wellness Week 2026

By Orlando Pulido (Freelance Writer)

SANTA ELENA TOWN, Cayo District, Wed. Sept. 23, 2026

   The Ministry of Health and Wellness (MoHW), in conjunction with national, regional, and international partners, officially launched Wellness Week 2026 on September 22 under the theme, “Promoting Health, Transforming Environments.”

   During the launch at the Western Regional Hospital, Project Director William Chen from the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF) highlighted some of the features of the six-month pilot project to promote well-being among the staff at the eight health facilities across the country.

   “If mommy is happy, the whole family will be … that applies to the workplace as well,” he told health workers in the Vaccine Room who had been assembled on Tuesday.

   Chen said that his project focuses on physical wellness, mental health, nutrition, and occupational and social health for health workers at the Ministry of Health and Wellness.

   In his brief talk, he concluded that “we needed to identify what works well, and what can be replicated; based on those findings, we will prepare a report.”

   Next on the agenda was the keynote address by Hon. Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health and Wellness. “Our surroundings influence what we eat; they affect our mental health and well-being,” he said. Minister Bernard also added that “across our region, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) continue to place a significant burden on our individual families.”

   Minister Bernard’s comment comes at a critical time as NCDs, including heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases, remain the leading causes of illness, disability, and premature death in Belize.

   Dr. Melissa Diaz-Musa, Director of Public Health and Wellness, detailed to Amandala how her Ministry is dealing with such diseases, especially among staff:

   “With the huge staff that we have at the Ministry of Health and Wellness, we decided that initiating certain things like physical well-being, nutrition education, and mental well-being are very important for us. Many of us work in very stressful jobs and stressful situations. So, we felt that taking the time out and improving the health of our staff would also help us to improve the health of our population. So, there are things like wellness rooms — that we have encouraged to incorporate in different hospitals and facilities, and breastfeeding rooms — where breastfeeding mothers can go and rehydrate and relax a little bit outside of the stressful environment. But other things like mental health assessments, counseling sessions, nutrition sessions, and also doing [checks on] blood pressure and heart rate and your body mass index,” she said.

   Dr. Diaz-Musa also reported a positive response from the staff to the ICDF-sponsored project. “All these things are very important for our staff as well. And when we started to introduce this pilot, we had extremely wonderful buy-in from our staff. The staff wanted some of this, and feel that they are being heard, and that their health is being taken seriously as well,” she said.

   Since the launch of Wellness Week, the Ministry of Health and Wellness has extended sincere appreciation to the Council of Ministers of Health of Central America and the Dominican Republic (COMISCA), the Central American Integration System (SICA), the Republic of China (Taiwan), and all national and community partners whose continued collaboration strengthens health promotion efforts across Belize and the region.