Carmelita Government School Receives Grant Funding from Japan

Hiromoto Omaya

Also receiving funding today from Japan was the Carmelita Government School. Currently, the school has sixteen classrooms hosting over four hundred primary school students. With this grant of one hundred and three thousand and eighty-six U.S. dollars, three additional building will be constructed on the school grounds. For School Administrator, Keith Augustine it is part of a bigger plan to expand the school to cater to the community’s needs. Japanese Consular, Hiromoto Omaya, says that it helps to strengthen the relations between Japan and the Central American Integration System, SICA.

Hiromoto Omaya, Consular, Embassy of Japan

“We know that education is the key for the sustainable development of the country. Like other island nations, Japan, we don’t have any oil or gas or any natural resources. We don’t have big lands for agriculture; we have nothing but human resources. So when we embarked upon a modernization about a hundred and fifty years ago, Japan put all the available resources on education. There was a very poor village in the northern part of Japan and they didn’t have much food to eat. So my Japanese government gave them hundred bags of rice. Instead of eating it, villagers sold the rice and with that money they built a school saying that rice, if you eat it, it will finish, but education will last. So that is how we put emphasis on education. When we assist and work together with our partner countries like Belize, we put much emphasis on education based on our stories and experience like that. So again I am very happy to be here today to sign on the grant contract.”

Keith Augustine

Keith Augustine, Administrator, Carmelita Government School

“It would benefit the Carmelita Government School with three brand new classroom buildings and a bathroom which is urgently needed at the school at this point.”

Duane Moody

“Talk to us about how the school has grown over the years and why it is necessary to have this in place.”

Keith Augustine

“Well the school continues to grow at a very fast pace due to the fact that the community is a community where a lot of Belize City residents at this point go and try to make a living in the Carmelita Government School. So I have a lot of people from the city going and settling down in that village.”

Duane Moody

“So the monies will solely be used for that?”

Keith Augustine

“The money is solely to be used for the construction of three classroom buildings and all that it necessary for the bathroom facility.”

Reporter

“Do you have a timeline in mind?”

Keith Augustine

“Well I would have to read over the contract to see what it would be, but I believe that it will be three months to start.”