How to protect our precious ozone layer

It is not one of the most fascinating subjects, but it is an all important topic. Eighteen students today received full scholarships for training on the relationship between the environment and refrigeration. The scholarships are being provided by the Department of the Environment and the technicians will be sensitized about the use of organic compounds known as CFCs that are present in cooling materials such as Freon and contribute to the depletion of the ozone layer. News Five’s Delahnie Bain reports on the award ceremony.

Delahnie Bain, Reporting

Students from the ITVET branches countrywide were at the Belize City compound today for a scholarship award ceremony. The scholarships are being financed by the National Ozone Unit in the Department of the Environment.

Martin Alegria, Chief Environmental Officer, DOE

“Today we gave out eighteen scholarships for deserving refrigeration and air conditioning technicians. This is the second such awards that we have been giving out to all ITVET deserving students. 2008 we gave out thirteen scholarships, now we have increased it to eighteen.”

While most scholarship programs focus on academics, DOE is sponsoring students studying Air Condition and Refrigeration to educate them about the harmful chemicals they might come across on the job.

Martin Alegria

“We have given out scholarships for us to be able to tap into the Belizean human resource to sensitize the new and upcoming technicians on the relationship between the environment and the refrigeration sector that they want to be in and at the same time give them the opportunity which few of us have of being awarded a full scholarship.”

Amado Gomez

Amado Gomez, Orange Walk District Manager, ITVET

“I could assure you that everything that is sent to the Orange Walk ITVET is something that will give forth much more fruits. I know that our trainees will do good with it. The past distribution of scholarships that were given in 2008, we had a good number of trainees completing and being certified and are presently working.”

kenroy ellis

Kenroy Ellis, Belize District Manager, ITVET

“I must admit that last year wasn’t very good for us in terms of the scholarship program but we’re taking a better step this year to ensure that our recipients will follow through. It’s money that doesn’t come easy and so you all need to be very committed and we need to be accountable for this scholarship program.”

Edgar Silva Jr., Cayo District Manager, CET

Edgar Silva Jr.

“On behalf of the Board of governors, the faculty and staff of the Cayo Center for Employment Training, part of the ITVET network, I would like to say thank you to the department of the Environment, the ministry and to all those concerned in regards to the scholarships. It is our first year—this is our newest program at the institution and it is catching on.”

The eighteen recipients will not have spent a dime for the current school year because the Chief Environmental Officer says they’ve got it all covered.

Martin Alegria

“It includes everything; tuition, books, research, I think insurance; all those things that are included in the ITVET programs, we have financed all of it and like I said, as an incentive or as an award more than anything at this stage for being interested and applying to get into the refrigeration sector, we have given them some basic tools to start them on their journey through life.”

Delahnie Bain for News Five.