Red Cross fundraising for Haiti passes $500,000 target

The Belize Red Cross led the charge in fundraising for relief efforts in Haiti after the massive seven point O earthquake ravaged the island on January twelfth. But apart from the financial assistance Belizean Red Cross volunteers also ventured into the devastation to render assistance to the affected persons. One of those volunteers, Larry Smith of the Corozal District, returned to Belize for two weeks after working in Haiti for the past two months. He has heart wrenching stories of life in the island and will return to Haiti for another three months as that country’s rebuilding and recovery continues. In the meantime, the Belize Red Cross’ continues to collect funds for the quake victims up to the end of this month and according to Director General Lily Bowman, they have met and surpassed their target of five hundred thousand dollars.

Lily Bowman, Director General, Belize Red Cross

“Now it’s starting to trickle down slowly but it’s still coming in; contributions are still coming especially from corporations. We have until the thirtieth of April, as we had promised from the beginning to keep the appeal open. So we’re still getting in contributions up to today. To date we have sent three amounts by wire transfer to the international organization’s account in Geneva and the three deposits total two hundred and forty-four US dollars or four hundred and eighty-eight thousand Belize. As of Monday, we had already raised five hundred and forty-one thousand plus dollars and we’re getting ready to send our last wire transfer by the end of April.”

Delahnie Bain

Lily Bowman

“Where do you think we will be by then?”

Lily Bowman

“Well, considering we still have a little over half a month—about three weeks—I don’t want to be as ambitious as I was when we increased the appeal target from one hundred thousand to five hundred thousand dollars; we have already passed that. But I would like to say that we may be around five hundred and fifty.”

Delahnie Bain

“Okay, so what do you think of the support that’s come in? It’s been more than five times the original appeal.”

Lily Bowman

“Yes definitely more than five times the original appeal. I think it’s really amazing and it shows the great strength and unity that we have as a Belizean people outpouring our hearts to those that need. And I think with the Haiti case it was extra special because of the vivid images we had on the news so many of them and they really touched people’s hearts.”

While she is impressed by how generously Belizeans have given to the Haitian quake victims, Bowman encourages locals to give as willingly to support the Red Cross in its work for local disaster preparedness.