U.S. NAVY PERSONNEL MAKE $100,000 CONTRIBUTIONS TO BELMOPAN INSTITUTIONS

December 08, 2009

The Garden City Primary School in Belmopan today received a donation of school supplies from the United States embassy in Belize. According to Ambassador Vinai Thummalapally, the donation to the primary school and other institutions in the Belmopan area was made possible through the U.S. Military Liaison Office’s Humanitarian Assistance Program and the U.S. Navy.  According to the ambassador, a group of navy personnel from the USS WASP which is currently anchored offshore Honduras, arrived in Belize at the end of last month and have been busy delivering on the humanitarian assistance.

Vinai Thummalapally; US Ambassador to Belize

"The military liaison part of the US Embassy coordinated the project with garden city primary school and the school was in need of some concrete work; some walkways for the children and also the paint for the school and so on. The biggest piece that got accomplished here is, two of the bathrooms were converted in to a makeshift dental clinic and there were a crew of dentists that treated well over four hundred students and in the community. That to me is the best Christmas gift that they could have gotten. It was a beautifully orchestrated project with the help of marines; about 23 came assure from USS Wasp. In addition to the students here several people in the community of Belmopan benefitted from the dentists' work. They did anything from fillings to root canals and all sorts of dental work. They treated well hundred patients so primarily the school students were treated but the community also benefited from the project."

According to a release from the U.S. embassy in Belize, the donations of dental services, back packs and construction and engineer work done at the school is valued at over four hundred thousand dollars. The Humanitarian Assistance Program is a United States Southern Command initiative that aims to enhance the ability of partner nations to withstand and recover from man-made and natural disasters and strengthen the bonds of friendship among nations within the region.

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