Environmental group helps with hurricane relief
Hurricane Keith is rapidly fading into Belizean folklore, but there are still people in need. News 5’s Ann-Marie Williams today accompanied one relief mission in the Belize district and is just back with the following report.
Ann-Marie Williams
“An organisation with an environmental focus, Programme for Belize, has decided to broaden its outreach to bring relief to hundreds of families in communities it serves; namely the Belize Rural North.”
Welcome to Bomba Village; population just over a hundred residents, ninety of whom were on hand this morning to receive their rations. Eighteen pounds of rice, beans, sugar, flour, a tin of baking powder, shortening and five tins of miscellaneous canned food.
Fernando Lawrence, Bomba Village
?Especially after this catastrophe of the hurricane, many us of here most of us are workers, I?m an artist, but then it came when we really didn?t needed it because the tourism had been scarce. Because of that we appreciate the food that they had given us and I think it?s a good programme especially for people who need it some more right now like the farmers. I think it?s something really beneficial now and I really appreciated it very much.?
Margarita Villanueva, Bomba Village
?It comes in good because we had it rough. We didn?t have any tourists and I sell carvings, so the food come in pretty good.?
What is also pretty good is that Programme for Belize has made this relief effort possible through funding from the Catholic Relief Services headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland in the U.S.A. And after two and a half months of distributing supplies, at the close of the relief effort some one hundred, twenty-nine thousand pounds of food would have been given out to families with as many as fifteen members. Henry Longsworth is the relief co-ordinator.
Henry Longsworth, Relief Co-ordinator, PfB
?We found out that many of the villages, there are lot of single people and it?s difficult to justify giving an eighty pound package to an individual. So what we have done is that we have divided, since this bag is designed to feed five people on average, so we have decided so split a bag among five people. Then in the cases of families who have two people we break a bag in half, so that bag would feed two families of two, meaning four. The from three onwards till nine, we give a bag and then families that are ten or in excess of ten get two bag and families in excess of fifteen get three bags.?
According to Longsworth it’s always difficult to decipher whose needs are greater within any community, and the Belize Rural North area is no exception.
Henry Longsworth
?The farmers, who are the one who depend on agriculture as the sole source of income, who were most impacted by flooding in the Maskall and Bomba area for example and to some extent in the Belize River Valley as well. Of course, there are many older persons in these communities who do not have any kind of support system. They have families and so on, but you may notice that in these areas a lot of older people live alone and the community tends to take care of them as such. We are looking at these people, we are looking at those large families where there is only one parent or where one parent may be unemployed with a large number of children.?
And Programme for Belize has a special relationship with these people.
Henry Longsworth
?Well Programme for Belize is involved in these areas, in the BelRiv area, in the old Northern Highway area, they have some ongoing projects. But I think it?s very important in a situation like this when disaster occurs that agencies and organisations that are involved lend a helping had. I don?t think there is no better feeling that when people you?re working with, community groups, community leaders, who are working and collaborating with your programme see you coming to assist in a situation like this, it was most appropriate.?
As the relief programme winds down at the end of December, it’s most appropriate that the residents are looking towards a new harvest.
Lucretia Medwood, Bomba Village
?Well I have nothing more to sell because Hurricane Keith. I have nothing more to sell.?
Ann-Marie Williams
?You had a farm or something??
Lucretia Medwood
?Yes, there were plantains, bananas, I planted potato, sweet cassava.
Ann-Marie Williams
?So you started planting since the hurricane??
Lucretia Medwood
?Oh yes, I started planting already. I am planting some sweet pepper, some tomato seeds, not a lot because I can?t handle a lot, I set what I can handle. Some for the table and some for market.
Linda Lanza, Maskall Village
?Yes, I?ve started planting okra, plantain and different little things, cilantro.?
Ann-Marie Williams
?Do you use to sell, or only for home consumption??
Linda Lanza
?Well, I sell when I have a lot. I sell right in the village and sometimes in the market.?
Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.
On Friday Programme For Belize will be visiting four more villages on the old Northern Highway.
