Rural Development Project kicks off in Double Head
In the world of international developmental assistance–that is what used to be called foreign aid–the latest campaign of choice is poverty alleviation. And while the most logical form of poverty alleviation would be to just give poor people money, life is not that simple. So instead we create projects … like the one News Five’s Kendra Griffith visited today.
Kendra Griffith, Reporting
The flight of balloons across the sky above Double Head Cabbage officially marked the launch of the Rural Development Project in the Belize District.
Dr. Marcelino Avila, Technical Director, B.R.D.P.
?It is to increase income and employment and essentially it is the basic indicators that we will be looking at evaluating any one of the activities or projects that we support. And the objective overall is to reduce the level of poverty in the whole country, but specifically here in the districts too.?
The B.R.D.P. was signed between government and the European Union in November 2005 and is expected to run from through November 2011. Under the agreement, Belize will receive seven million Euros or sixteen point six million Belize dollars to finance projects in rural areas.
Dr. Marcelino Avila
?We invest in groups or associations or in cooperatives. We will not invest in individuals, you have to have a group. It doesn?t have a be a formal or a legal group, it has to be an organised group, and the main reason as was explained by Karl Goeppert, is that in a group we will have a greater impact. Especially if we are helping or trying to help the poor then we can reach more people and use the resources of the project in order to be able to impact on a greater number of rural people and communities.?
Those rural communities in attendance at today?s launch say they?ve already got projects in mind to improve life in their village.
Seymour Samuels, Chairman, Gracie Rock
?It means opportunity. It means that many people will have an opportunity to better their lives, to take advantage. Hopefully we will go back to the village now and meet with the villagers to find out what projects they will be interested in and then take it from there.?
Kendra Griffith
?Off the top of your head, can you think of anything that Gracie Rock can do to be involved in this project??
Seymour Samuels
?Right off of the top of my head I can think of livestock, because Gracie Rock has always been a livestock producing village. And over the years it has not been what it used to be, so I guess that will be one of the projects.?
Fidel Lanza, Isabella Bank
?We are planning to go into a fishing business noh, Tilapia. We will do it because we want to employ people from the village, and also we have our own expense, our children going to high school, so we really need the additional funds.?
One third of the funds will be spent on projects spearheaded by women and youth, the precise target of the Double Head Cabbage Women?s Group.
Stacey Goff, Double Head Cabbage
?The Double Head Cabbage Women?s Group is planning to implement a centre that they could sterilise local fruits, like for instance blackberry, they have cashew fruits around that they could do jams. They do sewing, they do blankets and they do bags to take to the Baboon Sanctuary and the tourist they come in from the cruise ships they could stop by and purchase their bags. They sell it and it?s a profitable business especially for the ladies around the community. It?s very useful; it?s also for helping single mothers around the area.?
Technical Director Dr. Marcelino Avila says B.D.R.P. plans on investing mainly in small, medium, and micro enterprises, but every group has to come up with a quarter of the cost of the investment.
Dr. Marcelino Avila
?This investment of the recipient does not have to be in cash, it can be in kind. It could be in their land, in their equipment and mainly in their labour that they will invest in the project.?
Projects already approved for the first phase period include the YWCA?s plan to train young village women in trade and enterprise skills; six villages have received funds to go into honey production, while a seedling and tree nursery is in the works for the Belize River Valley.
The next batch of funding is scheduled for July 2007 to February 2008, where seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars will be made available. Proposals, however, must be submitted months before that starting date and go through a rigorous approval process.
Andrew Harrison, Chair, Belize District Development Committee
?We are the first ones to look at the projects evaluate them, and if they pass with a score, we recommend it to the project management unit and they will have the final say.?
Dr. Marcelino Avila
?We put it into one proposal and we send it to the Government of Belize and then to the E.U. and when it is approved, then we are ready to implement.?
Andrew Harrison
?After a project is being implemented it will have a monitoring and evaluation team that will be looking at the progress of the project. Also, we will have some service providers, who will assist in this and the disbursement of funds will be done through a credit union, so all this monitoring and evaluation will see that the project is a success.?
To apply for a grant, visit the office of the Ministry of Agriculture or the Rural Development Department in your district for an application form.
Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.
This afternoon the Belize Rural Development Project held a workshop in Double Head Cabbage for women and youth on how to prepare for and request funding.
