U.S. Ambassador hands over cheques for AIDS, archaeology
Financial assistance from the United States government has diminished over the years, with the bulk of Uncle Sam’s grants to Belize going to drug interdiction efforts and his loans coming via multi-lateral institutions like the I.D.B. and World Bank. But now and then the U.S. Ambassador is able to shake loose some funding for special projects … and today he handed over the cheques. News Five’s Janelle Chanona has more.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
Today five Belizean organizations were awarded financial grants, courtesy of the United States government, to assist in local initiatives fighting the spread of HIV and AIDS. Hand in Hand Ministries received four thousand Belize dollars, the ministries of Education and Health received twelve thousand dollars each, Youth Enhancement Services, thirteen thousand dollars; and the Young Women?s Christian Association was given nine thousand dollars.
Robert Dieter, US Ambassador to Belize
?It isn?t a lot of money, but if targeted well it could make a difference.?
Hand in Hand Ministries will use the money to support their efforts in networking more than forty families infected or affected by HIV.
Mark Thessing, Hand in Hand Ministries
?As we know, we don?t hear a lot about statistics on children who are living with HIV and AIDS. This is an area that we really wanted to focus our efforts on. The Day Care Centre, it?s more a day treatment centre and we actually serve children from birth all the way up to seven years old.?
The Ministry of Education will use their funds to create competitions in poetry, art, drama, and music as part of a new campaign to erase stigma and discrimination.
Maud Hyde, Chief Education Officer
?I think we need to not refer to responding anymore to the disease, but really being on the offensive. We need to be looking at prevention rather than educating after the fact. And particularly among our young people, we have to look at more creative ways of addressing their needs, and educating them about the effects of this terrible disease.?
While partners focus on education, the Ministry of Health will produce a documentary and a series of public service messages to promote the Voluntary Counselling and Testing centres.
Jorge Polanco, Director of Health Services
?These centres were created with the intention to increase the number of testing and of course it goes along with other processes. For example, increasing the awareness of the status of the population in regards to HIV, and as the name of the proposal is entitled, to know your HIV status.?
For Karen Cain, too many teenage mothers she knows are sexually active and HIV positive. Under her leadership, Youth Enhancement Services will make a film about the Belizean experience.
Karen Cain, Youth Enhancement Services
?This year we are hoping to do the movie because it?ll be fun for the young women to do and at the same time, killing two birds with one stone, mass reproducing it to send it all over the country to be used as a teaching tool. We are hoping that probably we will put out an ad for those who are interested, apart from the women?s group to come and apply for different parts to do and then we pick out those we think can really deliver a good job on the screen.?
The Young Women?s Christian Association is trying a similar tactic.
Sonia Linares, Young Women?s Christian Association
?We?ll also be doing a lot of training, peer education for HIV and AIDS, and we will be working not only in Belize City but also in the district because we have a group in Gales Point Manatee and we hope to outreach to that group also, so this funding means a lot to the YWCA.?
This morning the U.S. Ambassador?s Cultural Fund also awarded more than a hundred thousand dollars to the Institute of Archaeology for the restoration and conservation of two spots at the Lamanai archaeological site.
Dr. Jaime Awe, Director Institute of Archaeology
?When the Spanish arrived in the 1600s, missionaries were sent from Mexico into Belize try to convert those Mayan communities still in existence here. These missionaries arrived in Lamanai and they build a church, subsequently, the Maya, fighting for their independence destroyed the first church. The Spanish return and built a second and eventually that church too in the middle of the 17th Century is also destroyed by the Maya in their fight to maintain their freedom. The British eventually come in, in the late 1800s, early 1900s and unlike the Spanish, they established one of the first sugar mills in the country of Belize.?
?Today all that remains of these buildings are the ruins that were left behind and the eventual destruction caused by natural forces, the jungle et cetera and later, people scavenging some of the beautiful red bricks from the sugar mill and some of the stone work from the churches.?
Robert Dieter, U.S. Ambassador to Belize
?Between 2001 and 2006, the United States has averaged more than two point five million U.S. dollars annually in direct assistance to Belize. This includes hundreds of thousands of dollars in worthwhile projects that promote education, help protect the environment, and improve our mutual security through military assistance and training.?
?The contributions announced today are examples of the United States commitment to continue to assist Belizean civil society and non-governmental organizations in their efforts to improve people?s health and well being.?
The grant to the Institute of Archaeology was the third largest awarded to projects worldwide by the Ambassadors’ Cultural Fund.
