Community Oriented Policing Unit Awards High School Scholarships
The Community-Oriented Policing Unit awarded eight scholarships to high school students selected from across Belize City today. The unit chose students who reside in single-parent homes. The recipients are attending high schools that are not part of the Ministry of Education’s Education Upliftment Pilot Project. The ceremony was held this afternoon inside the Yarborough Community Resource Center.
Howell Gillett
ACP Howell Gillett, Commander, National Community Policing
“It has become an annual event for us to support young people, especially in the Belize District with all circumstances that young people are experiencing. We want to give young people an opportunity to get a quality education. Crime or policing is not just about arresting people, we must find another alternative in terms of preparing young people to become successful adults. What we are seeing here today and we are grateful for all the sponsors who have helped us throughout the years to help these young people, there are many students who are receiving another scholarship going into a different form.”
Amayah Skeen
Amayah Skeen, 2nd Form Student, St. Catherine Academy
“This opportunity is very helpful because I have seen my mom and my grandma struggle a lot, helping to pay my school fees. I feel like this will help me to strive and be better for high school and graduation and I know it will make my mom very proud of me because she is a single parent and it helps her to see me strive. My vision for one I grow up is I want to get a degree in law. My family has gone through a lot with law and it has affected me in many ways and I just want to see people, like the law, constitution get better, in my opinion.”
Edgar Seguro
Edgar Seguro, 4th Form Student, Edward P. Yorke High School
“I know there is a lot of other students like me who would wish for an opportunity like this and they don’t get it, so it makes me want to try more and it also takes off a strain from my mother as well. So it helps both ways. For me, it shows that police are not just people in uniform who try to enforce the law, they are actually kind hearted people that actually look out for young people and want to see Belize be a better place.”
