Sunrise Rotary Club donates 12 computers to schools
The Sunrise Rotary Club of Belize handed out twelve computers to Belize City primary schools on Thursday. The donations kicked off their Computer Aid Program, which will assist schools on the south side to start or resume computer classes. The computers were purchased with the help of a three-H initiative; Health, Hunger and Humanity grant from Rotary International. According to the Rotary Sunrise’s Public Relations Director, Hugo Moguel, their surveys showed that at least two thousand students don’t have access to computers. News five spoke to Moguel when Ephesus Seven Day Adventist School received the donation.
Hugo Moguel, Public Relations Director, Rotary Sunrise
“Rotary Sunrise got twelve computers and so what we did was—our main focus is education with a special concentration in the Southside. So we surveyed several elementary schools to see what their situation was and how their computer labs were going. We discovered that several had computer labs but they were put to no use. Their machines were no longer working and in many cases the schools had been robbed and vandalized and the computers destroyed. We went and chose four special programs where the teachers are very much involved, the principals are very much involved and they have the proper facilities to have a computer lab. So we distributed the twelve computers over those four, that’s Ephesus Adventist, Calvary Temple, James Garbutt and the Y.M.C.A. There’s a heavy dependence on technology; we can’t belief behind. When you look at elementary schools in Belize City, having kids that are going to graduate, move on to high school and have absolutely no experience with computers.”
Marva Bennett Howardo, Principal, Ephesus Seven Day Adventist
“We’re very grateful for it. If you could look around, we have some spaces. What happened, we had all these lines here they were filled with computers but over the years they were stolen. So we were left and the children kept asking Ms. when will we have computer classes again. So these will help us to answer their questions. It will benefit them very good because some of them are computer literate, they have the machines at home and make use of it. The others now will be able to come up to their level and help themselves and at least bridge the gap by the time they get to high school.”
Delahnie Bain
“So how soon your computer classes resume?”
Marva Bennett Howardo
“As soon as we can get them hooked up we will be in here. Even if it’s just standard six, we will be in here.”
While it is not a primary school, the Y.M.C.A. was selected as one of the recipients because their after school program benefits a number of students.
