V.S.O. announces it is pulling out of Belize

After the nearly forty years of providing development assistance to Belize the British charity organization Voluntary Service Overseas is pulling out. A three man team of V.S.O. program directors from the Caribbean, working in conjunction with local employers today began a three week review of existing programs. This evaluation is designed to develop an exit strategy that will eliminate the so-called shock syndrome and one which will ensure that there is no vacuum left after all the volunteers have packed their bags and boarded the plane for home. A V.S.O. press release says the organization will gradually wind down its operations over the next six years. Program Director for Belize Mark Wright told News Five the decision to pull out of the country was made on the grounds that Belize’s development has been so impressive over the years that the country no longer needs volunteers or in any case, needs them far less than many of the other countries where V.S.O. is active. The termination of its services in Belize around the year two thousand and four, will mean a total withdrawal of volunteers from the Caribbean. Only Guyana in South America will maintain a V.S.O. presence in this hemisphere. The organization has been active in Belize since 1959 and a Program Office was opened in Belmopan in 1984. Since then over one hundred and fifty volunteers have worked in Belize with both government and non-government institutions, in areas of health, education, agriculture, social and human development.