Joy For A Child Foundation Sees Prisoner Reaching Out to Help Children

Paulette Gentle-Augustus

A new initiative is being rolled out by an inmate of the Belize Central Prison to reach out to children who have lost their parents to violence.  The Joy for a Child Foundation is the brainchild of Gregory August who is serving a lengthy sentence after being convicted of murder.  While he will be eligible for parole in the next seven or so years, August, on his road to redemption, has chosen to help ten kids who are fatherless or motherless during this Christmas Season.  The inaugural activity kicks off in earnest in December; however, through his aunt who is the spokesperson for the fund, we were able to find out more about the program.

Paulette Gentle-Augustus, Spokesperson, Joy for a Child Foundation

“The Joy for a Child Foundation is simply what it says, bringing joy to children who have been disenfranchised by losing their parents to violence, be it domestic violence, crimes of murder, whatever the case might be, but for children who have lost a parent.  So the objective behind it is to give them some type of care or bring joy in some form to say that, you know what, we are here and he has thought that it’s not only for Christmas, but these children need to know that somebody is there to support them for their birthdays, for Easter, for those major holidays.  Back to School and things like that.  So that is where it came from for him in terms of how it can bring joy to a child who has lost a parent.”

Isani Cayetano

“So how are you guys kicking this effort off?  I know we’re heading into the Christmas Season and kids will be out on Christmas vacation.  What can they expect and what are you guys offering?”

Paulette Gentle-Augustus

“Well, right now we are starting off with ten kids.  We are focusing on ten kids.  He wanted to be out there and he wanted to start off with twenty-five but we encouraged him that, let’s be realistic.  Let’s look at ten and then we can grow the foundation from there.  So we’re tying it with Christmas, so the first thing we’re going to do is to promote it where it is that we’re going to put the name out there so people are aware that it is happening and what Gregory is doing.  So we will start off by a simple registration process where it is that parents can register the child between the ages of one to twelve and they bring in the particulars for the child, the name, the age, birth date and a picture of the child and then we will do the selection from there.”