OVER A HUNDRED HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TO RECEIVE SCHOLARSHIPS AWARD TODAY
November 10, 2009
A hundred and thirteen students were today recipients of Academic Promise Scholarships made possible through partnership between Peacework International, Price Waterhouse Coopers and the Ministry of Education. Two and a half months into the new academic year these students are being awarded five hundred dollars in grants and a thousand dollars for fellowships. Peacework International has been active in community development in Belize for the past fifteen years. Present on behalf of the non-profit organization was its director Steve Darr.
Steve Darr; Director, Peacework International
”Peacework has been around twenty years and we’ve had fifteen thousand people involved in programs in communities in twenty countries around the world. But there’s nothing more rewarding to me of all of those programs in all of those years than to stand here with you and to celebrate this event with you. Everything that we are doing in our organization, everything that we do with the schools here in Belize and the communities here in Belize, everything is built around you and your potential success and your lives to the dreams that you have for your future.”
For his part Education Minister Patrick Faber appealed to the recipients to take advantage of the scholarship opportunity and commended the charitable contributions of both organizations.
Patrick Faber; Minister of Education
“I want to ask you this evening, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls to put your hands together for these two entities that have now become a giant in the education system of Belize. The efforts that are being concretized here today include scholarships of course but also contributions of these stationeries and other things that are contributions to the schools that you see line up before you. Mrs. Babb assures me that this is only a representation of what we are actually receiving that it is too much to display. And in fact this is just a contribution to making sure that what happens in our classroom is quality.”
Besides financial assistance students are also invited to join Peacework Youth Leadership Council, an arm of the organization geared towards involvement in community service. Representing Price Waterhouse Coopers was Jose Nunez.
Jose Nunez; Representative Price Waterhouse Coopers
“We take a lot of pride that we have been able to start this relationship with Peaceworks and the country of Belize. Youth education is extremely important to PWC as well as the development of our people as leaders. The Belize program has afforded us the opportunity to connect with the students of Belize through our letter exchange program in which over four hundred and twenty students participated here in Belize along with five hundred interns. Throughout the summer PWC was able to collect school supplies in which we were able to collect over three hundred boxes of supplies which we will be distributing to four public schools here in Belize.”
Projects the students were engaged in over the last two summers were designed to develop youth leadership, activism and proper learning environment for personal growth. The combined total of the contribution to education is in the area of sixty-seven thousand Belize dollars.
