The Health Education and Community Participation Bureau (HECOPAB) is the Health Promotion arm of the Ministry of Health & Wellness with responsibility to plan, coordinate, and implement health promotion programs, community outreach, projects, interventions and educational activities throughout Belize. 

The Community Health Worker Programme (CHW) is managed by the Health Education and Community Participation Bureau (HECOPAB), the Health Promotion arm of the Ministry of Health. There are District Health Educators countrywide, who provide training, monitoring, and supervision to approximately 200 active CHWs countrywide. 

As a significant element of the Primary Health Care initiative, the Community Health Worker Programme was launched in Belize around 1982-1983 to improve the rural populations’ access to basic health services. At the very local level, the implementation of Primary Health Care is based on the construction of health posts, deployment of rural health nurses, and recruitment of Community Health Workers.  CHWs are trained by the Ministry of Health & Wellness to engage in disseminating preventive health messages and providing basic curative services to their communities.