Benque children clean town
Whether you live in a city, town or village, trash on the streets or along the waterways is not only unpleasant but is a health risk as well. This month, one Cayo radio station has been enlisting the help of the district’s youngest residents to get the message out: keep your area clean. Yesterday Hyacinth Latchman visited with some school children in Benque Viejo del Carmen who were enthusiastically participating in Radio Ritmo’s “Save Our Rivers” campaign.
The massive campaign had the participation of students and teachers from Mount Carmel Primary and Howard Smith Nazarene High School as they set out to clean up the town of Benque Viejo.
Robert Hernandez, Teacher
“The school was invited and we are doing this as a school together to help our environment. And these are standard two students. We believe that our environment has a lot of dirt and we need to clean it because it’s one way we can help our environment.”
Monday, the children also had the chance to clean up San Ignacio and its surroundings. Although they are young you would be surprised just how civic minded they are.
Eric Trujillo, Student
“If we don’t clean it our community will not look better. Because if some visitors come to visit our community they will say that our community is not clean; that we don’t clean it.”
Ivan Gonzalez, Student
“I feel happy because I am helping my community to do something that all of us could do in order to keep it clean and stop destroying our environment with pollution and things like that.”
Ida Mendez, Student
“We are cleaning up the town so it could look more cleaner and healthy. I feel good that Benque is clean and healthy.”
The teachers we spoke to feel like this is a big accomplishment for the children. And, the feedback they are getting from the kids about the “Save Our Rivers” campaign has been positive.
Robert Hernandez, Teacher
“Up to now I see all of them enjoying themselves. And, they now have a better knowledge of cleaning the environment and what are the preventions they should take to avoid sicknesses.”
Eliza Guerra, Teacher
“I feel proud about the kids and the parents that gave them permission because in that way we educate the kids in keeping the community more clean.”
Hyacinth Latchman
“In the end, the students and teachers here at Benque Viejo managed to pick up a large amount of debris of the streets. Hyacinth Latchman for News Five.”
Luis Garcia, the coordinator of the “Save the Rivers” campaign told News Five that the trash thrown along the streets and drains of the towns in the Cayo District eventually makes its way into the rivers. Garcia says the children involved in the clean-ups in the various towns will be encouraged to conduct monthly follow-ups to sustain the program. The campaign runs until the end of the month with the Great Cayo Eco-Triathlon on February twenty-eighth.
