Forty Grants for Forty Years of Independence

Sapna Budhrani

The National September Celebrations calendar of events for this year includes a new grant program for forty artists and creative workers, in line with the celebration of Belize’s fortieth anniversary of Independence. This morning, the National Institute of Culture and History introduced the initiative which provides a thousand dollars to individuals who successfully present a unique idea or project that celebrates the Jewel during the month of September. 

Sapna Budhrani, President, NICH

“This is forty grants that would be given out.  Is this the first call, is it going to be rotated, is it forty grants at the start?  It all depends on the applications we receive.  If we receive a lot of applications and we’re able to find the forty applicants, successful ones, then we would be giving out the forty grants, if not then there may be another call.  How do you go about with it?  You can get the application form from our website, from our Facebook page, contact the NICH offices or email nationalcelebrations@nichbelize.org and you can get a copy.  The application form is about eleven questions long, it is quite straightforward.  The start is just your bio information and section two is more the questions that are being asked.  Who is eligible for it?  Anyone who as any innovative or creative idea, it’s any idea, any project, any business idea, whatever you want, whatever you have in mind.  The Plan Belize speaks about an art fund, this is not necessarily only to the art fund but this could be the jump start to keeping that in mind.  The funds have been received from the Government of Belize and the Government of Taiwan, they’re our major supporters.  This is a National Celebrations Commission initiative so the funds are gotten from both entities for now.  Whether we’ll have more individuals, more entities joining us, time will tell with our projects that we have.  For this one, it’s mainly the Government of Belize and the Government of Taiwan.  When should these applications be submitted by?  The deadline for these applications is August thirty-first, that is the deadline for these applications.”