Minister Figueroa: Hol Chan Donated School Bags to Summer Camp

Omar Figueroa

A report and receipt surfaced on social media recently claiming that Minister Omar Figueroa had received a donation from the Hol Chan Marine Reserve to be used in his constituency. Figueroa is responsible for matters relating to the reserves and it seemed that he was piggy-backing his office for political contributions from a fund that is used for conservation.  A cheque for two thousand five hundred dollars was issued to North America International Company, according to the payment voucher as a donation requested by Figueroa to raise funds for the purchase of school bags in the Cayo North and Corozal North constituencies. Today, Figueroa downplayed the issue saying it was for the purchase of school books.

Dr. Omar Figueroa, Minister of State, Ministry of Environment

“Earlier this year, in the summer, a group launched the first ever summer programme for kids—no plastics, no Styrofoam. And the Hol Chan Trust I think was invited to be part of that whole initiative to help with the no plastics summer camp. So the way going forward is to have these types of summer camps, these types of outreach activities in different places. If you go to San Pedro, you’ll see there are a lot of challenges with plastics and Styrofoam. So I believe as part of this initiative Hold Chan donated school bags, you know; actual physical schools bags to kids from this area. No money came to me; I did not touch a single dollar. They actually donated school bags, as did many other institutions and organizations.”