Eastern Division South Holds Back to School Drive

Chester Williams

Today, the Eastern Division South Police Department hosted the first of three back to school drives at its headquarters on Raccoon Street. Aside from the officers donating books and some basic school supplies, the department collaborated with Social Security and several corporate partners in the city to issue just over one hundred school bags and supplies to primary and high school students from south side Belize City. ACP Chester Williams explains.

ACP Chester Williams, Regional Commander, Eastern Division South

“You have heard us over and over saying that you know one of the reason why crime is on south side Belize City is because many of our children are out of school—some of them not because they want to be out of school, but because they don’t have the basic needs to go to school. And so we, the officers of South Side Eastern Division, took the initiative that we will assist and we know that there are lot of people out there assisting with back to school programs and supplies, but they cannot reach out to everyone. So what we did was a survey within the community and we tried to identify those kids who we know had not been a recipient of a back to school program and they are really in need. And those are the kids who we selected to be given the back to school bags today. What we distributed today is just over a hundred bags and next week, we will be having another back to school drive or two more back to school drive—one for the Jane Usher Boulevard area and one of the Saint Martin’s area—and we are expected to issue over two hundred and fifty bags in those two areas early next week. What we try to do is ensure that we assist these young people to go to school. We cannot be speaking about changing the community and changing the way of life of these kids, if we do not chip in to see how we could assist them making that change.”