Income generating project underway in O.W.

An eight-week training program in food processing started today in the Orange Walk District. Forty young women from the villages of San Antonio, San Roman and Santa Cruz will spend the next two months learning how to process fruits into jam and vegetable into pickles. According to the implementing agency, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, the venture is part of the Rio Hondo Project sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme. Project Coordinator Manuel Trujillo says the goal is to assist the communities in the Rio Hondo area in mitigating the effects of massive flooding in 1995 caused by Hurricane Roxanne which passed north of Belize. Trujillo says the project is expected to generate income for the participants while at the same time creating much needed employment for others. Next week, the implementation of the project moves further north to Corozal where a similar food processing training will commence. Participating villages include Patchakan, San Victor and Concepcion.