YMCA neighborhood watch and City Council team up

The offices of the Young Men’s Christian’s Association (YMCA) on Faber’s Road Extension in Belize City is sitting in an area that is a virtual speed zone.  Not many drivers slow down when passing the facility which is attended by students for after school as well as feeding programs.  The YMCA and the Faber’s Road Neighborhood Watch Committee have been teaming up to develop the facility while protecting the neighborhood. Some of the work such as the removal of derelict vehicles in the area was accomplished with the help of the city council.  YMCA’s executive director, Clara Cuellar, says that’s why they invited the mayor today to their office to say thanks.

Clara Cuellar, Executive Director, YMCA

“The Faber’s Road Extension Neighborhood Watch Committee, the YMCA and the Fabers Road Police have been working over the last few months, almost a year, to get some positive programs for our community.

Clara Cuellar

The YMCA has been here for a few years, and we were approached by Mr. Gabourel, the chairman of the Fabers Road Neighborhood Watch Committee to host and support neighborhood watch in the community and we said yes. What started as a relationship where they would use our buildings for meetings became a very strong relationship. We have a lot of children coming in the evening, the traffic speed is really too high on Fabers Road and it’s an accident waiting to happen and I think people don’t realize how many children we have here. So with mayor’s assistance and Traffic Department, we got a cross walk, some go slow signs, we got our yard cut, we’re removing derelict vehicles. So those gave us motivation. We approached Mr. Michael at the National Sports Council now to look at the recreation centers. We got a few loads of sand already and I’m very happy that today the mayor made a commitment to help us fill the field next door here. She’s already cutting it through the members of her clean up team. So today was a small celebration and between Mr. Gabourel and myself, we said let’s get the committee members together and feel good about what we’re doing to motivate each other and then we decided why not invite the mayor and tell her thanks.”