The Belize Zoo Spent A Great Part of A Donation on Cleaning Up and Rehabilitation

Celso Poot

Poot explained that the Zoo had received a sizeable donation since the COVID pandemic, but that it was so much in the red that most of it went into balancing off its operations and then came the hurricane that required spending on cleaning up.

Celso Poot, Director, the Belize Zoo & Tropical Education Centre

“We received the sizable donation last year that assisted during the end pandemic for us and also during the recent Hurricane Lisa damages. What happened was the director from Key Bank visited and we talked about what our challenges were and he was able to assist us a donation of five hundred thousand dollars. Thankfully, it was unrestricted donation. That means the zoo could have used it how we best needed it. At the time when we received the donation, we were just over three hundred thousand dollars in overdraft. And so we made it clear to the donor that most of that money would’ve been going to operational expense and then to fund some of our conservation programs that were left behind because of no funding because of the pandemic. We were able to, to bounce back along with the donations we received from other donors and the Belizean  public, so we were able to reopen on December 17th, and as you can see, when you up through the zoo, the recovery effort is still ongoing. Just when we think we were going to get a sigh of relief – breathe a sigh of relief – then the hurricane hit us. And so, Um, that donation, as I said, very timely. People can reach us through the website. There’s a donation button there. People can reach us through email, the from desk or just go on the website and for local donation or Belize Bank and Atlantic Bank information is there, so you can just do a local transfer. If you’re in the U.S. and you want tax deductible for your donation, then visit the website. We also have our 5 0 1 C-3 in the U.S. that assist us with that.”