A Family in the West is Gifted a House
Christmas will be a happy time for a family in San Ignacio. That’s because Mirna Cuellar and her children today received the keys to a new house, which will bring ease to their life in the upcoming festive season. The two-bedroom house was built by the Hand in Hand Ministries in partnership with the Belize Bank. Here is News Five’s Duane Moody.
Duane Moody, Reporting
A family of six from San Ignacio today received the keys to a brand new house just in time for the Christmas holidays. Today in the outskirts of San Ignacio off the Bullet Tree Road in an isolated area of the western town is where Mirna Cuellar lives with her husband and four children. They have been praying for this blessing and finally their greatest wish has become a reality.
Mirna Cuellar
Mirna Cuellar, Homeowner
“I feel happy. I think this is a big blessing that I was waiting for. I have been asking God for many years for this and I know he answered my prayers, my children prayers because we together as family, we prayed for the same thing and we done get it. I am happy.”
Duane Moody
“You were talking to me earlier that your husband, you guys are still in disbelief that this has happened.”
Mirna Cuellar
“Yes, I walk around the house and I tell my husband I think I still in a dream. Only last month I was telling him that we are not sure who was going to get the help. So I tell him I still can’t believe it is us. So we are going to be living in a new house; we are not going to suffer cold or rain so we are very happy.”
This is one of four hundred houses to date that have been built by Hand in Hand Ministries through its Building for Change Programme that started several years ago. It provides families, who meet specific criteria, with an opportunity to improve their living condition. In this case, the Cuellars received a two bedroom wooden house with plumbing and electrical.
Rashida Bethran
Rashida Bethran, Director, Building for Change Programme, Hand in Hand Ministries
“It’s a method of poverty alleviation. I am not sure you heard the story of the starfish. Yes there is a wide variety of poverty in Belize, but if we help one family at a time—one starfish thrown back in the sea at a time—it doesn’t look like we are impacting or making a difference, but we are making a difference in the families’ lives and that is very important. Whenever a local organization partners with Hand in Hand, they not only provide the funds, but they also get their own volunteers from within their staff to come and build houses with us under the supervision of our coordinator Mister Beto and the assistant coordinator, which is Mister Lewis.”
The value of the house is over seventeen thousand dollars, which was provided through partnership with the Belize Bank Limited. Relief Officer, Gerard Martinez says that it is part of the bank’s corporate social responsibility to help the community, outside of the services it offers to its customers.
Gerard Martinez
Gerard Martinez, Relief Officer, Belize Bank Limited
“Belize Bank has always been known as an organization that gives back to the community. And here in San Ignacio we are glad and excited that during this time of the year, we are able to donate a house to this needy family.”
Rashida Bethran
“This is our thirty-sixth house for the year; the last house we are building for 2019. It has been a long year, very productive with the different donors, and local organizations, especially who have come out swinging for us this year. Belize Bank has showed interest in building with us and they wanted to do either south or west. And we gave them a couple of options and they were more than willing to help Miss Mirna Cuellar in housing assistance.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
