Liberty Home for 47 kids at risk of closing

The public officers provided some relief today, but there is a startling reality facing Liberty Home. It is under financial crisis due to the worldwide economic downturn and the support from local and international donors, is dwindling. News Five confirmed today that it is almost a month since employees have been paid because there is no money. Director of the Foundation, Delfena Mitchell, says the institution faces closure and the forty-seven plus less fortunate children can become homeless.

Delfena Mitchell, Director, Liberty Foundation
“We are having a financial crisis because we are totally funded by donations and the money that we had coming in is no longer coming in and as a result we have not been able to pay our employees. This week is week three. Many of the people who previously donated to Liberty was from overseas—United States, United Kingdom—and they no longer can afford to give us money so the only source of income Liberty has coming in at the moment is from a charity shop in the U.K. and it’s not enough to keep us going.”

Duane Moody
“So what are you guys going to do from here on?”

Delfena Mitchell
“Well, we’re working with the government of Belize, the Ministry of Human Development and Transformation to see what they can do to help us. I spoke to Ms. Alpuche yesterday and she is committed to helping us. She asked that we give her until next week to see who she can help us. I would like to make an appeal to the Belizean Public and Belizean citizens to help us with monetary donations how they can. After all, these are Belizean children and they need our help. We should not look to just foreigners to take care of them. They are here because the Human Service Department call us and said hey we have these students that we need to care for, we have nowhere else for them to go can you take care of them. And I said yes and they are here. But now, we ourselves need some help so we can continue to take care of them.”

The Liberty Foundation comprises of the Liberty Children Home, the Liberty Learning Centre and the Liberty Organic Garden. Five of the forty three staff members have resigned from the institution in the past week. If anyone would like to assist the foundation they can simply contact Mitchell at 225-2158 or cell number 624-3696.