Climate change, we hear a lot of talk about it, but is it real? Well, you'd have to ask the scientists - and even then, you'd probably end up with more questions than answers.

But, the Red Cross says residents of Jane Usher Boulevard are already living with the effects of Climate Change - and if you don't believe just visit the area after a heavy rain - and now you might say this is a drainage problem - but the Red Cross says it's a people problem - and today the organization held an open day to show how they are responding.

But, hardly anyone - including relevant Government agencies - showed up which left the Red Cross Executive Director Lilly Bowman more than a little crestfallen:

Lilly Bowman - CEO, Red Cross Belize
"The Belize Red Cross has been working with this community since 2010 after Hurricane Richard when we were doing assessments and distribution of relief items- we saw the dire need of coming into this community to assist them with disaster reduction and to give them the knowledge for better resilience in order to respond in times of disasters."

Monica Bodden
"What is the evidence of climate change on Jane Usher Boulevard?"

Lilly Bowman - CEO, Red Cross Belize
"This is a very vulnerable community. Today we have plan a drive thru, if our gust show up through the area to have them see the vulnerabilities that they face every day. For instance the people use garbage for their landfill and this is not good; it's a swampy and so whenever there is just a one day rain it is like a whole pool behind here. It is something that should be taken very seriously - the effects of climate change on every community especially on urban communities where the population is dense in certain areas that are already vulnerable to different things."

Reporter
"I guess you are a bit disappointed with the turnout. Do you feel that you have to change strategy in terms of reaching out to the community?"

Lilly Bowman - CEO, Red Cross Belize
"This is our change of strategy - we've always been having stakeholders' meetings and presentations in places like Radisson, in places like Biltmore. This is supposed to be a public awareness. We've invited several government agencies - we've invited the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Human Development, Ministry of Tourism, The Ministry of Health because we work closely with these departments throughout our work and climate change will affect this community and they are the people who can make changes; who can facilitate the opportunities for changes. What I want to say is that we don't have any of them represented here. I only wish that the government authorities were here, the business people were here and the other organizations that we invited were here so that we can tell them the good work that these people are doing and the believe that they have moving forward. This is a group that is saying enough is enough - stop stigmatizing Jane Usher Boulevard. Yes we have our problems but we are not totally sitting down and letting those problems hold us down."

Channel 7