Queen Square Anglican gets New Playground

There are few parks in the south side of Belize City and where they can be found, the conditions are less than ideal for use by children. So there was much celebration this morning at the Queen Square Anglican School which was gifted a full equipped playground courtesy of a Canadian Foundation working together with the Rotary Club of Belize. Andrea Polanco reports.

Andrea Polanco, Reporting

The screams of the children’s excitement couldn’t be contained when their new recreational area was open for play. After the ribbon cutting ceremony, the newly installed playground was put to the test, as the young students took to the slides, chin-up bars, climbing frames and rings. Restore Belize says that the purpose was to create a safe, fun space for the students that would also impact the quality of life.

Roger Bradley

Roger Bradley, Senior Programme Officer, Restore Belize

“The whole idea is a social inclusion programme that provides recreational, sporting, educational activities in our neighbourhood spaces, our neighbourhood parks. Over the years, due to gang violence, our neighbourhood parks for some reason have lost what they were actually for, to bring children to play.  There are situations where drugs are being sold in the park and illicit activities are taking place. Now, we are restoring that peace and family life back to our parks. So, the whole idea is to create proper spaces for child friendly activities. And I would say no school deserves this more than Queen Square Anglican School; one of the largest schools in the country and in the city. It is a school located in a depressed area.”

Several partners were involved in procuring the play park for the students. It was gifted by a Canadian Foundation.

Randy Boissonnault

Randy Boissonnault, Executive Director, Literacy Without Borders

“So, the playground foundation that takes playgrounds that have timed out in Canada that takes play ground and refurbish them, comes from a town in Canada named Black Diamond in the South of Alberta. The reason we want to save these playgrounds is because there are still value in them. New, they are worth between eighty thousand and one hundred thousand U.S. So, with a little bit of elbow grease and some paint and some fixing up, it can be used in other parts of the world. I think this is the sixteenth playground that Emmanuel Foundation has done in Belize.”

Today’s donation represents only part of a larger initiative underway in Belize.

Randy Boissonnault

“The play ground is actually a component; it’s one of five components of a three year international services commitment from the rotary club of Edmonton, in partnership with the Rotary club of Belize and Rotary Club of Belize Sunrise to Southside Belize City.  What we are doing is four playgrounds, we are refurbishing three school libraries, we are delivering dozen of classroom libraries and we are going to be starting at least four academy of reading and academy of math centers and we are going to be starting at least some other rhymes that binds programmes.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Andrea Polanco.