Gwen Liz Receives Computer Donation from CitCo
There was good news today for students at a high school in the south side of the city. At the request of the Gwen Lizarraga High School, a number of computers and a printer were handed over today to the school by the Belize City Council. The donation is timely because the students are now preparing to sit their CXC exams. Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley says that the equipment will also come in handy for the high school’s night program. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
A donation of six desktop computers and a color printer was formally handed over to the management of Gwen Lizarraga High School this afternoon by the Belize City Council. The initiative is part of CitCo’s commitment to assist in providing secondary schools with the resources needed for students to complete their academic courses. The contribution, while going a long way, is a small gesture towards a much greater cause.
Lorna McKay
Dr. Lorna McKay, Principal, GLHS
“We are very, very grateful because we have a shortage of computers right now. We lost some of our computers during the summer when we had some construction. However, we had two computer labs. We have a population during the day of five hundred and fifty-one students and in the night about three hundred and eighty-five. So the computers are very, very much appreciated.”
Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley was on hand for the brief handing over. The computers which were installed and made ready for use as of today come in at a cost of approximately seven thousand dollars.
Darrell Bradley
Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor
“Dr. McKay from Gwen Liz had written the city council to request a gift of some computers because the students needed it for their computer courses and also their preparation for CXC and those kinds of things. And so this afternoon the City Council handed over six brand new computers and we also provided our staff to do the hookup so that our MIS staff was here all day in terms of ensuring all the network and everything was operational to the point where the students had been able to use the computers this afternoon. And this again is part of a wider program from the city council because we’ve done computer labs, we’ve done science labs, we’ve done uplifting of basketball courts, filling of yards, so that we routinely tend to assist schools with physical types of infrastructures because we know many of our educational institutions are strapped for cash and they may have resources for core functions but they may not have the resources for those additional implements and that’s where I think an organization like the city council in circumstances where at these times of the year when we are a little bit more liquid because we are collecting inflows in property and trade license we could give back to members of the community, particularly in the area of education.”
Isani Cayetano
“In terms of the actual cost of this contribution what are we looking at in dollars and cents?”
Darrell Bradley
“It would be about maybe six to seven thousand dollars, including all the installation costs and so forth and that is something that again, the City Council is happy to provide simply because of the importance of education. One of the things that we‘re very pleased with Gwen Liz is their night program and this was something that was piloted by Dr. McKay in terms of writing the grant for the project proposal for that program.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.
