Living w/ Hope project to give $$$ to AIDS patients

There is good news tonight for persons infected or affected by AIDS in Belize. Thanks to money collected through a telethon held in August, starting this week, the Living with Hope project will begin accepting applications from persons crippled by the financial reality of the disease. Chairman of the National AIDS Commission, Dolores Balderamos Garcia, explains how the needy can access the over eighty thousand dollars available to them.

Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Chair. Nacional AIDS Comisión

?We have formed what is called a social advisory sub committee and we have some social workers who are involved, they are very professional people. And they have worked out the protocols and the procedures that we would like to use so that we can be transparent and professional. And now that those have been worked out, Living with Hope, soon to be a foundation and a non-profit company, yes indeed we are accepting applications from the public, from individuals, or from organizations. And we want to stress on those people who need help the most, especially our children. And so what we are going to be doing is asking the pubic to just send us something to Living with Hope and you can take it right on number eight Seventeenth Street in the Kings Park area of Belize City.?

The three member social advisory committee is comprised of social workers Judith Alpuche, Starla Bradley Acosta and P.J. Shannon. Balderamos Garcia says that approved applicants will be forwarded to the project management committee to collect the monies awarded. Balderamos Garcia says that the project hopes to publicize its first quarterly report by December first, World AIDS day.