The Jasper Rotary Club, in partnership with the Rotary Club of Edmonton-Glenora, received a $20,000 grant from the Canadian government to help improve Belize鈥檚 education system.
The grant is part of $66,000 the club has collected through a series of matching grants to improve Ocean Academy, a high school located on the island of Caye Caulker, off the coast of Belize. All figures are in U.S. dollars.
鈥淭he school is uniquely positioned to meet government goals related to education and has received numerous national and international awards for the quality of its education and stewardship programs, however the school and its students continue to be challenged financially,鈥� said Libby Weir, chair of international projects for the Rotary Club of Jasper.
鈥淭he money will go towards finishing off the top floor of the school and towards educational workshops for the teachers, as well as a scholarship program for those students that need financial assistance.鈥�
In her role with Rotary, Weir and her husband Greg Fenton have been visiting Belize for the past five years to build playgrounds in underprivileged communities and decided to expand their efforts after learning about the challenges facing students on the island.
鈥淓ducation breaks the cycle of poverty,鈥� said Weir, who will be returning to Belize with her husband in March to build two more playgrounds.
鈥淭heir mission is to educate all youth regardless of past academic or financial challenges and they have designed a new Bridges program that will strengthen core skills for students who struggle in elementary school, so they can grow into productive citizens.鈥�
Prior to Ocean Academy鈥檚 opening in 2008, students were forced to take a water taxi 40 minutes each way to get to Belize City, the capital of the country, said Weir.
Today, 70 students are enrolled at the school, 60 per cent of whom live marginally.
For the past three decades the government of Canada has been supporting Rotary clubs and in August announced it was contributing $1.2 million annually for the next five years to Canadian Rotary projects. This is the second grant that has been provided to a Rotary club in Canada.
Locally, in order to garner the grant, both Jasper and Edmonton-Glenora Rotary clubs pitched in $5,000 each and leveraged the money to apply for more grants. In Belize, the Rotary district also pitched in $500.
Paul Clarke [email protected]
