British Forces radio helps B.C.V.I.

Each Year, the Belize Council for the Visually Impaired, hosts summer camps for disabled children across the country. The trips motivate the children and help them deal with the challenges that accompany blindness. When the children are in school, B.C.V.I. continues assisting these special students to get an education. However, the programmes are expensive to run and any donations to B.C.V.I.’s efforts make a big difference. Such was the case this afternoon when B.F.B.S., the British Forces Radio Station in Belize, handed over a cheque for two thousand, two hundred and ninety-five dollars to B.C.V.I.’s Executive Director Joan Musa and its President Sister Elsa Oliva.

Joan Musa, Executive Director, B.C.V.I.

“We’ll put the money towards our work with children. We have various activities; we work with them throughout the year preparing them to go to school for our very young children, as well as to five year olds. And then once they are in school we also give them support making Braille materials, going on visits, helping the classroom teachers. And then once a year we have a summer camp where we bring all the children together and this will be very useful for that activity. Sometimes we go to the caye or take various trips around the country with them. So we do have quite a lot of activities that this money will be very, very useful for.”

Sister Elsa Oliva, President, B.C.V.I.

“We are very grateful to B.F.B.S. Every year or every time they give us a contribution it always goes to enhance our programmes. And as usual, the children will be befitting from it and B.C.V.I. is able to give service to all those that need it, especially those with a vision problem.”

Hermina Graham, Coordinator, Wireless For the Blind

“It’s raised through the support of local businesses who provided anything from an overnight stay at hotels to our own servicemen who actually offered their own services, whether it was babysitting or cooking, anything they could think of that they could provide without having to pay for it in the first place. We then raised money throughout the year by organising various events from raising sponsorship money through the Ruta Maya canoe race, through theme nights on camp at Price Barracks. And it all culminates with an on air auction.”

Hermina Graham, a presenter at B.F.B.S. and coordinator for Wireless for the Blind, says the charity drive is held by the British Forces radio stations across the globe to assist the visually impaired worldwide.