Chamber comes up with cash to fight crime

Crime and the causes of crime continue to be a hot topic up for discussion, with obvious reason. And while everyone has an opinion on how to effectively deal with the situation, one organisation is putting its money where its mouth is, literally. Since, November of last year the Belize Chamber of Commerce has been encouraging its members and friends to contribute to a revolving fund to assist nationally in the country’s effort to effectively address the issue through educational programs. According to B.C.C.I.’s General Manager Kevin Herrera, they’ve got enough money to make their move to make a difference.

Kevin Herrera, General Manager, B.C.C.I.

“The purpose of the fund is to look at addressing the overall issue of crime, whether that is through enforcement or other means, through education and other social activities. We began the fund, we wrote letters to the business community, our members within the Chamber and other people who operating in the business community, as well as various embassies and organizations. And since then we’ve been collecting money, putting it into a special fund.

“We want to address issues dealing with crime, whether those are crime awareness, apprehension, conviction or like I said, through social programmes, like education, youth activities and those areas…we just can’t stand by and not do anything an I think that programme will continue to exist. Some will be better than others; we hope to address the ones that will be most effective. As you remember, the Chamber was the lead organiser or the organiser in fact for the shutdown we had last year February, and this is a follow up to that. We’ve continued to work with the police, we made several contributions to the police over the years, but what we wanted is something that’s more long standing.”

The Chamber of Commerce crime fighting initiative will be officially launched on Tuesday morning during ceremonies at the Burrell Boom junction with the Northern Highway.