Navco - National Association of Village Councils

“Strengthening Local Level Governance to Enhance National Development”

The work of NAVCO is guided by its Strategic Plan 2007 to 2010, approved by the National Executive in 2007. Program, project, and operational development is aligned with the Strategic Plan and the obtainable resources. In addition, alignment with the organization’s Vision, Mission, and desired outcomes is ensured at all times. Main lines of development (more…)

Tentative National Annual General Meeting

The NAVCO board currently scheduled a tentative National AGM for end of November. The board will feature showroom with booths from other organizations, announcing new directions and goals for rural development, and showcasing leadership at the national and district levels. Any organization interested in particpating, please contact the NAVCO office. Check the website for future details. (more…)

Launching a New Village Council Training Manual

Partnering with Peace Corps, NAVCO will introduce and launch a new Village Council Training Manual. This manual details training on leadership, meeting processes, financial reporting, and basic business writing skills. For more information, please contact the NAVCO office.

Diversity in Rural Villages of Belize

Creole

The Creole of Belize share a common ancestry, they are the offspring of African slaves imported to work the logging camps and European adventurers. Most of the slaves came from West African (between the present countries of Senegal and Angola) by way of Jamaica. The Creole population within Belize embodies generations of mixture and melding that has shaped a people and culture distinct from any other in the world. Originally introduced to the country as slaves to work the timber trade, these African...
Garifuna

According to tradition, the first Garifuna arrived in then British Honduras on November 19th, 1802. This day is now a national holiday in Belize celebrated with drums, dancing and pageantry. Today, there is one town in Toledo – Punta Gorda – that is considered a Garifuna town, and two Garifuna villages – Barranco (the oldest Garifuna settlement in Belize) and tiny Punta Negra. ...
Ketchi Maya

The Ketchi Maya are originally from the Verapaz region of Guatemala. They migrated to Belize in the late 1800′s after losing their land and freedom to German coffee growers. The Ketchi settled in the lowland areas along rivers and streams, forming small isolated villages throughout Toledo. Because of their isolation, the Ketchi have become the most self reliant ethnic group in Belize. They are also peaceful people known for their cooperative practices in farming and cultural development. While...
East Indian

Under British colonialism in the 1800′s, thousands of people in India had become unemployed. Many were starving because of droughts and increased food prices. Between 1844 and 1917, British landowners brought East Indians from Jamaica and India to work on logwood and sugar plantations as indentured servants. The exact number of indentured labourers brought to Belize is not known. However, the numbers were never large. The census of 1891 lists only 291 persons living in the colony who were born...
Yucatec Maya

Persisting over thousands of years of wars, natural disasters, colonialism, imperialism, and inner conflicts, the Mayans continue to thrive in Belize as the only indigenous people in the country. Of the three main Mayan factions (Yucatec, Mopanero, and Kekchi) that inhabit Belize, the Yucatec Maya reside mainly in the northern districts. The Yucatec Maya migrated to Northern Belize in the mid 19th century as a result of the Guerra de las Castas in the Yucatan. With ancestral ties to the Yucatan Peninsula...
Mopan Maya

The Mopan Maya originally inhabited parts of central Belize and the Peten in Guatemala. In the 1600′s some were converted to Catholicism by the Spanish while others resisted. Many were struck by white man diseases such as small pox and all were driven out of Belize by the British in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1886, the modern Mopan began migrating back to Southern Belize from the village of San Luis in the southern Peten, Guatemala escaping forced labor and taxation and searching for a...
Mennonite

About 3,000 Mennonites relocated to Belize in 1959 along the River Hondo in search of a life free of religious persecution and the pressures of modern society. They signed a special agreement with the Belize Government which exempt them from military service and certain forms of taxation while concomitantly guaranteeing them complete freedom to practice their own distinctive form of Protestantism and farm within their closed communities. They also freely practice their own form of local government...
Chinese

Beginning in the late nineteenth century, an influx of Chinese immigrants arrived in Belize through the establishment of an immigration fund by the Belize government. The Chinese population soared as many immigrated to escape the Japanese invasion of China just before World War II. Moving around the Central American republics, many of them settled in Belize. More recently, many Taiwanese have made their homes and established businesses in Belize as part of the economic citizenship program offered...
Mestizo

Northern Belize is home to the largest Mestizo population in Belize. The term “Mestizo” refers to individuals of mixed Spanish and Yucatan Mayan descent whose primary language is Spanish and religion Catholic. Mestizos originally landed within the borders of modern-day Belize after fleeing the Guerra de las Castas in the Yucatan in 1848. When the conflict ended, many refugees remained and settled along the River Hondo on Belize’s northern border. More recently, immigrants from Guatemala...