BPOs donate 80K for COVID-19 response

Representatives of five of the biggest call centers in Belize officially did a handing over of donation to the Ministry of Health. The players in the BPO sector got together to give over eighty-thousand dollars in supplies and equipment to the Ministry of Health and the N.H.I.  The press was invited for the handing over ceremony where we found out more about how this donation is being used to respond to COVID-19:

Kevin Herrera, CEO, Protel BPO

Kevin Herrera

“We came up with the idea, well, let’s pull some funds together just to assist government with acquiring the type of equipment and the supplies that they need. So, individually we started making pledges; this one was twenty thousand; this one was five; this one was ten; two; three – whatever it was. I think the total was eighty-two thousand dollars that was raised among ourselves. And this was divided through the NHI and Ministry of Health. So, it is something that we are very happy to have participated in and we are even happier about how effective the efforts in Belize have been in terms of controlling this pandemic. We believe it could have been a lot worse.”

Dr. Natalia Castillo Rodriguez

Dr. Natalia Castillo Rodriguez, GM, NHI SSB

“The role that NHI, SSB played was to facilitate the purchase and collaboration between the call centers and the Ministry of Health. So, in contact with the Ministry of Health they identified there was a need for N-96 masks and infrared thermometers which are so useful and on point because they will be using it in the rural areas.”

Melinda Guerra, Regional Health Manager, Central Health Region 

Melinda Guerra

“We have had a lot of learning lessons from COVID and one of them is that through partnerships you can get so much done and this is one example of it. The donations with the N-95 and infrared thermometer are definitely coming in handy at the clinics. When persons are coming in we have to take their temperatures and so that is where the triage starts. That is happening at the poly-clinics and we plan to expand to clinics throughout the country. So, definitely we are going to make much use of it.”

The first part of the donation was made available back in March.