E.U. helps homeowners, farmers who suffered in Dean

Five months after Hurricane Dean devastated portions of northern Belize, the European Union is offering more than two million dollars in aid to the storm victims. According to a government press release, the EU is providing approximately one point seven million dollars for housing in the Corozal, Orange Walk and Belize Districts. The project will include the construction of forty-four cement houses, the repair of ten hurricane shelters and financial and technical assistance to community groups. The Social Investment Fund estimates that the initiative should impact approximately six hundred and forty-nine families. And while the homes are being built, the EU is also helping farmers improve their crops. In partnership with the Ministries of Agriculture and Fisheries and National Development, the Europeans have signed a million dollar contract with Prosser Fertilizer and Agrotech Company to provide more than twenty-two thousand bags of fertilizer for distribution to sugar cane farmers affected by Dean. Distribution began today and will continue for the next three months. According to the release, the show of support is part of a hundred million dollar pledge from the EU to transform the local sugar industry in the wake of removal of traditional preferential quotas.