British provide funding for three projects

The British High Commission in Belmopan has announced a number of small initiatives to aid a wide range of Belizean causes. In a ceremony this evening in Belmopan a cheque for four thousand, five hundred dollars was presented to the Belmopan chapter of the Belize Cancer Society. The funds, generated by a garden party hosted by the High Commission, will go toward the construction of a resource centre for cancer victims in Belmopan.

On the governmental level, three officials are being sponsored by the British government to attend a training seminar on the conduct of effective U.N. peacekeeping operations. B.D.F. Lieutenant Colonel Reynolds Lewis, Assistant Police Superintendent Noel Leal and Mike Bejos of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will depart next week for Buenos Aires, Argentina, where military and civilian personnel from nineteen countries will gather to explore the components of modern peacekeeping. This type of international collective action is growing increasingly important and the U.N. system allows the chance for even the smallest countries to make a significant contribution to the maintenance of global stability. The course runs for five days.

And in the field of the environment, British scientists from the University of York are working with their Belizean counterparts to investigate the habits of the whale shark. The whale shark, which is the world’s biggest fish, congregates in great numbers annually off Gladden Spit on Belize’s barrier reef. The specie, which represents a special attraction for the tourism industry, has recently been placed on the international list of endangered species. The British funds come under that nation’s Darwin Initiative on biodiversity.