Information center opens in Rancho Dolores
The volunteers were only in their village for a month, but what they leave behind will last for many years. Today News Five went to Rancho Dolores which is not only looking to enhance tourism, but to preserve its past in a new information center.
Today, boys and girls of Rancho Dolores Primary School and the village residents said goodbye to members of Trekforce Expeditions. The U.K. charity group spent one month in the village constructing Rancho Dolores’ first Visitor and Environmental Education Center.
According to Harry Everard, Trekforce Project Leader, when they arrived in the village on February seventeenth the group, along with villagers, first had to clear and prepare the land before they could start to build.
Harry Everard, Project Leader, Trekforce
“We were confronted with a bad patch of soil which was a bit daunting and we progressed from there. A lot of digging involved, a lot of moving of concrete because the foundation is pretty substantial. But under the guidance of Raymond Reneau we built the building that we see today.”
The building, constructed at a cost of fourteen thousand dollars was funded by the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP. Earl Perez, the Village Council Chairman said the center will provide more than just information to visitors and tourists.
Earl Perez, Chairman, Village Council
“The center will house information regarding facilities and services that we offer but it will also house the culture and history of our village.
This will enhance the living condition of our people both socially and economically.”
Perez says the center is the start of a two-year plan called the Spanish Creek Bio-diversity Protection Project. It seeks to protect lands and provide some form of income to the village residents.
Deputy Prime Minister Johnny Briceño stood in for the Prime Minister at this morning’s opening ceremonies. There are currently eighty Trekforce volunteers in Belize and they have been working at four project sites. Most Trekforce volunteers give five months of service to Belize working as assistant teachers in rural schools. The next set of volunteers arrives in July.
