U.S. military follows up on local construction projects
They may no longer award university scholarships like the Mexicans and Cubans do today, but the United States government is not stingy when it comes to deploying its military construction teams to Belize. This morning News Five’s Kendra Griffith found the U.S. soldiers back in familiar territory.
Kendra Griffith, Reporting
Last March, Hattieville Government School was one of four educational institutions to benefit from additional classrooms as part of the U.S. Army’s New Horizons initiative. But it wasn’t the first time they’ve received such a donation.
Twelve years ago, U.S. soldiers constructed this three-room structure … and today as part of a new initiative that building has been refurbished.
Cruzita Castillo, Principal, Hattieville Govt. Primary
“They changed all the wooden windows that we had to aluminum windows. They did three classrooms on Welch building. Also they repaired the electrical aspect of the classrooms; they changed light bulbs to florescent lights and they also gave us a new fan and repaired the old ones that are in the other classrooms. Besides that, they also did the upper walls of the east and west walls to stop the heat from entering the classrooms, so we find that the classrooms are much more cooler now.”
According to U.S. Ambassador to Belize Robert Dieter, the project is dubbed Beyond the Horizons and will act as a follow-up to its bi-annual big brother.
Robert Dieter, U.S. Ambassador to Belize
“The idea is to send down smaller groups of construction people to look at the projects that have been built and to see what repairs might need to be made or adjustments need to be made. And so they are travelling around the country to the schools that have been built over the years.”
Col. Kevin Woods, Deputy Comdr., Support, U.S. Army South
“These soldiers, believe it or not, are all volunteers. So we set up the projects and as who wants to go across the United States and everybody wants to do it believe it or not, they all want to come. So the Utah Soldiers were the first ones to volunteer and they are really a mix of carpenters, plumbers, electricians, all the skill sets. We put them together in a group of twenty people, twenty soldiers and they volunteered and came down.”
Brig. Gen. Lloyd Gillett, Former Cmdr., B.D.F.
“They move to Delille Academy in the South and Light of Christ Primary School in the Stann Creek District to do basically the same thing. I think this demonstrates U.S. long-term commitment to improving the education infrastructure in Belize and we are very grateful for the assistance.”
For Principal Cruzita Castillo, any assistance comes in handy because with a staff of eighteen and student body of four hundred and twenty-five, she has her hands full keeping up with the wear and tear on the campus.
Cruzita Castillo
“As it is, finance does not come in easily from Ministry of Education. We try to be self-sustaining, like for example, right now we are going to have our May Fair on the thirty-first and the proceeds from that will go to repair our kitchen because it is termite infested and the whole ceiling from the eating area is already down.”
Belize is actually the last leg of the four-month Beyond the Horizons tour. The soldiers were previously in Panama and Guatemala. Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.
The soldiers leave the country at the end of the month.
