City Council, business houses feed homeless
Battlefield Park was converted into an outdoor dining room this afternoon as the City Council teamed up with local business houses to feed the homeless.
An estimated two hundred and fifty people sat down to lunch through the efforts of City Hall, FirstCaribbean International Bank and Extra House. According to Belize City Mayor Zenaida Moya, while the event provides immediate assistance to the homeless it also highlights the long term needs of this vulnerable population.
Zenaida Moya, Belize City Mayor
“A number of the homeless residents, they need one or two things. One they need sponsorship to be able to stay in the homes of which I was of the view that Government, as long as they need to go there, they would get a place. But apparently no, the Raymond Parks shelter and so forth, they need support to be able to be able to accommodate and house these residents so that is something that we will be working with to ensure that more of them can go in there if we can. Those who need further medical assistance because there may be some who may have mental illness in some instances, we will try to work even closer to ensure that those residents get the necessary medical care that they need. I think it’s an area where I would like to see people become independent, I would like to see them get back on their feet and lead a normal life.”
Socorro Pariente, Customer Service Manager, F.C.I.B.
“FirstCaribbean is very keen actually on community service, so any opportunity that we get to do so and we thought that this one in particular since our country manager’s wife had just died, we though in memory of her, we would do this initiative with the Belize City Council.”
Janelle Chanona
“How would you encourage your colleagues in the business community to get on board initiatives like this?”
Socorro Pariente
“Actually to tell them it’s very good because it’s always good to give back…to show the community that it’s not just a business, but giving back to the community is always a good idea.”
The organisers plan to make the event an annual one.
