Belizean and U.S. group join to help kids
With the primary and high school drop-out rate clearly in need of improvement, two non-profit groups from Belize and the U.S. have joined forces to do their part to make a difference in the lives of school-aged children. The newly formed local group, Rhythm of Change or R.O.C., is made up of staff primarily from Eurocaribe Shipping Services. They’ve teamed up with RowKids of the U.S. to hold a family concert next month. Both groups share the same mission – to help children realise their educational potential.
Neil Hall, Public Relations Officer, R.O.C.
“It’s one of the biggest family fun things that will ever happen in Belize or has happened so far because next year we plan to do it againand for this we’re bringing down some international bands and we’re having Children of the Most high, which is a local band perform. The two international bands that we’re bringing down are Everlife, which is a Disney Band. They are just coming off tour with Hanna Montana. No, Hanna Montana is not coming but this group is very well known. They are very popular, they have great songs for not only young people but for youth like myself and you and we also have a group called Chasen. Chasen is coming down and they’re a Christian rock group and they will be performing as well. They are also a very good group. They have had a top ten hit in the U.S Christian Rock section of the Billboard charts.”
Hall says his group was compelled to get involved by the negative trends developing in Belize.
Neil Hall
“We came together last year because there was a lot of violence happening around the middle of the year and we were saying that it was going to deteriorate the entire country, how can we help as a social conscience reach out to the community and we thought that by keeping children in school would be the way to do this. With this in mind we thought about a way to initiate a programme that would then help the children to remain in school because we know that one of the reasons why children to drop out of school is because they’re frustrated and it’s because of small things actually and you look at it as helping someone in a little way that makes a huge difference, either through a feeding programme, through giving them the correct textbooks, giving them the educational assistance that they need, their uniforms, correct attire, shoes, these are all ways that you can help a child.”
The concerts will take place on March twenty-eighth at the Norman Broaster Stadium in San Ignacio and at the M.C.C. Grounds in Belize City on the twenty-ninth. Gates open at four in the evening for T-shirt sales and autograph-signing with the band members. Students will qualify for the R.O.C. programme through churches and schools, starting with Belize City while RowKids help mainly youths in the rural communities. RowKids started out in the Billy White area and started putting children through school, supplying books, pens, clothing and shoes. Their three year old programme has also put youths through CET, Sacred Heart and Eden High Schools in San Ignacio.
