Joy For A Child Foundation Kicks Off with a Bang

The Joy for a Child Foundation, a community outreach initiative founded by Gregory August, held its inaugural event earlier this month with an activity at B.T.L. Park that saw ten children receive Christmas gifts and other goodies.  The idea for the foundation was conceived by August, an inmate at the Belize Central Prison, who is doing time for murder.  While he anticipates his return to society in a few years, August is giving back to children who have lost their parents to gun violence.  His aunt, Paulette Augustus, is the spokesperson for the newly-formed foundation.

Paulette Augustus, Spokesperson, Joy For a Child Foundation

Paulette Augustus

“I must say that the event was a success.  It was held on December nineteenth and we had done it keeping with the Ministry of Health’s regulations and because we had ten kids who were of course along with their parents and other members of the foundation, we did it in rotation.  We had the first ten children showing up at two o’clock in the evening at the BTL Park and the other five showing up at three in the evening.  We had them do a little bit of activity in terms of painting and preparing Christmas cards for the moms and the moms were there with them as well.  So it was a joy getting to meet the children and their parents and surprisingly there were about two or three of the parents that I actually taught at high school.  So that was a joy to meet them and in some way giving back to someone that you know will benefit from what it is that the foundation has to offer. This is the human side of him, this is the person side of him, where it is that he is reaching out and giving back in terms of not just staying in the system and realizing that, you know what, there is nowhere for me to go but rather this gives him that ability to do the time rather than have the time do him.  So he’s finding a way to, you know, rehabilitate in a way that he can give back and make himself a bit proactive in terms of starting this foundation and helping out these children and their parents in bringing some type of, alleviate some type of pain or however assistance that he can give.  With this now, with this foundation and the give back that he is doing then coming back into society is going to be a bit easier for him because then he has something to look forward to when he comes out, so he can take up that mantle and then truly run his foundation.”