Pre-school transformed into health/education facility
With the districting of constituencies, a portion of Lake Independence became a part of the Pickstock constituency. Foreign Minister and Area Representative, Wilfred Elrington was on hand this past Saturday when the Lloyd Coffin Pre-school was refurbished, upgraded and inaugurated to serve the two communities. Elrington was not only happy with this accomplishment, he had some bold statements to make about one of the benefactors of the project, Lord Michael Ashcroft. Jose Sanchez reports.
Jose Sanchez, Reporting
The Samuel Haynes Institute of Excellence on Mahogany Street will serve as a pre-school, community centre, computer lab and Diabetic Centre and will provide opportunities for skills training. Wilfred Elrington told the large gathering that both P.U.P. and U.D.P. administrations worked on the project and it has now finally come to fruition. He said the transformation of the pre-School into an educational and health facility came with assistance from various quarters.
Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
“In the health center, the Michael Ashcroft Center, Belizeans are dying from diabetes, people have renal failure. Former Minister of government Chiste Garcia has a problem; none of his kidneys are working. Members of my constituency, one of my major campaigners had to get dialysis treatment. But to get the treatment they need three times a week, it costs maybe about two three thousand dollars. How will you and I afford that? We have gotten in touch with Lord Michael Ashcroft. He himself is a diabetic and he was very excited about the idea of keeping this center sustainable. We also talked to the Venezuelans and the Cubans and they have agreed to make us have the doctor at least three days a week. And then every six weeks they have agreed to bring a whole team of doctors go into the community and check people.”
“We have education and nutrition. We have next to that the Michael Ashcroft Diabetic Center and one famous radio personality said to me, not going to come to this opening because I am associating myself with Michael Ashcroft and in fact getting assistance from him. Well, I have no apologies for getting assistance from Michael Ashcroft. As far as I am concerned he has put in a lot of his resources into this nation. He’s in fact providing employment for untold Belizeans. It is not a one sided thing, however, he is getting as much for his money as in fact he is giving up. Coming to Belize has not been a one-sided thing for Ashcroft. He has made money and he has made money from Belize. He understands that, has no difficulty in giving back to Belize. And I think we all need to understand that. We need partners. We need partners in the private sector.”
And that partnership with the private sector which developed the pre-school has included Telemedia.
Dean Boyce
“When we spoke to Minister Elrington a few months ago and he told us about the project what we wanted was one, the educational theme, which is definitely a key part of it. But secondly, we wanted a community that was actively participating. And we knew if we invested some money we knew it would be well worth it and we get a significant benefit in terms of direct benefit for the local community.”
“What we contributed to was the development of the Lloyd Coffin Pre-School, it was our primary role. It included refurbishment of the roof, the walls, the painting, fittings inside and it wasn’t just—we spent about a hundred and fifty thousand dollars to date on that particular project and some other elements to the side—but it also included a lot of our staff time. This is our community project and our staff is very much a part of the community and they wanted to be involved in that refurbishment project, part of this change that is taking place here at this new institute.”
Jose Sanchez
“I remember I saw some of the staff come out here on the weekend to paint and put their own sweat into this project.”
Dean Boyce
“In their own spare time, right. A lot of the—pretty much all of the Telemedia staff is very much like that.”
Other organizations involved included the Social Investment Fund, and Cardi which has started a small planting project to show residents how they can be self sustainable. UNICEF is also providing support by donating computers, musical instruments and books.
Rana Flowers, UNICEF Representative
“UNICEF invested in the pre-school when it was first built and so the investment at this point in time is very much about bringing development back to the community. It’s really about saying to the community, this is where the children are. These kids have the same rights as every other child in Belize. And we want to ensure they benefit from early childhood development, they benefit from good nutrition, they benefit from having access to books; people reading to them. First time moms can come or the mothers of toddlers can come in and get some advice about some of those stages of development etcetera. And you have a whole lot of activities throughout the day. And then you capitalize on the kids coming out of school at the end of the day, you give them remedial help with their homework. You introduce them to computers and make sure they are computer literate etcetera and you really give them a safe space.”
No matter where the investments came from, the children in the area are the beneficiaries. Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.
Samuel Haynes wrote the lyrics of “Land of the Gods” which later became the National anthem, “Land of the Free”. Haynes led the 1919 riot by Belizean soldiers who fought for the British in World War One and is known for his stance against racial discrimination.
