Over $180K Worth of Sanitization Supplies for Schools
A hefty donation of sanitization supplies were symbolically handed over to the Ministry of Education from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, at the House of Culture this morning. News Five’s Duane Moody was there and files this report.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Over one hundred and eighty thousand dollars worth of school cleaning and sanitization supplies were handed over to the Ministry of Education to be distributed to hundreds of schools across the country that have reopened to hybrid learning.
Dian Maheia
Dian Maheia, C.E.O., Ministry of Education
“It was really exciting to be able to work with people who reached out, said how can we help. We had an answer; we knew the sort of help that we needed and they responded right away, so we are really grateful. Initially, we started off looking at primary schools. We were looking actively at saying alright so as we begin the return to hybrid, we know one of the things that we need to work on is how can we support schools with supplies. We fully appreciate that schools have been working really hard, principals, teachers, parents, the community – everyone has been chipping in to help support the schools with the supplies that they need. We know that even this donation, generous as it is, is not going to meet all the needs, but it is a really big help. It is a way to provide additional support.”
The process started from September of last year and took about three months to see it realised. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints reached out to the ministry, and after looking at the needs, the value of the donation is almost five times the initial amount. While this donation comes in the form of sanitization supplies to the education system; the church has supported Belize with wheelchairs and medical supplies to health facilities such as the K.H.M.H., vaccines to the country, as well as furniture for schools.
Leovany Lopez
Leovany Lopez, Representative, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
“Caring for the poor and the needy is a foundational belief of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints built on the principles of personal responsibility, community support, self-reliance and sustainability. Humanitarian efforts are designed to give individuals and communities the tools they need to improve their own circumstances in permanent and meaningful ways. Brothers and sisters, these kind donations are possible through the generous contributions of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Members throughout the world come together, particularly on the first Sunday of every month to fast for personal and collective reasons. Fast offerings and generous contributions of members of the church enable the church to take care of needy members and to fund the church’s humanitarian efforts throughout the world.”
Today, reps from a couple of schools were symbolically handed the supplies. C.E.O. in the Ministry of Education, Dian Maheia breaks down how the distribution is going to take place through the district education centers countrywide.
Dian Maheia
“We had put out for the schools a supplies request form and up to yesterday, we had three hundred and thirty-nine submissions. So there has to be some way of documenting who gets the supplies, who needs the supplies. so we are using here the support of our district education centres. As I said, we have the data – those three hundred and thirty-nine schools are schools across the country. So the master list is shared with the district center so they know these are the schools that you need to get to and then they are supporting us in the delivery. So the symbolic handing over was here is a bag, but those schools will get more bags than that. The numbers will differ depending on the numbers indicated – how many classrooms, how many students.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
