BELIZE RED CROSS HANDS OVER HOMES IN NORTHERN DISTRICTS

December 21, 2007

The Belize Red Cross today handed over twenty houses to families affected by Hurricane Dean in the north of the country. Karen Diaz of the Belize Red Cross told us more.

Karen Diaz of the Belize Red Cross:

“We are very happy to be able to give out at least twenty houses. There are still families that require shelter, many families are living with other family members or friends and you find situations where you have all fifteen and twenty people living in very small homes and having to depend on the generosity of those other family members and friends. It’s difficult at times and situations like that cause a lot of anguish and so forth and so there is still need and if there are people out there who still want to donate and want to help, we already have our system in place and there are people we identified this morning and there were at least five other families just in two villages that could do with some assistance and many others that still need roofing help. The Red Cross will continue to work as long as we have the funds and the human resources and people are willing to volunteer their time and help and we will be out there as long as we can.”

The Belize Red Cross handed over five houses to families in Chan Chen, two houses in Cristo Rey, two houses in San Pedro and one in Patchakan. Five houses were also handed over to families in Black Water Creek and five in Trial Farm village. Diaz told us more about how the families were selected.

Karen Diaz of the Belize Red Cross:

“We selected the families through a process of family assessment. Of course we are familiar with the damages that were done throughout the districts and we’ve visited every village and we found out people’s family history and what their work situation is, how many children, lactating mothers and the prospects of work or out of work and based on all of the data that we’ve received, they decided clearly on who needed them the most to utilize the funds that we had. We only had twenty houses that we’re giving out at this time and as soon as we receive the funds from the Canadian government then we continue our business right away.”

The Belize Red Cross also installed water tanks in three of the villages in the north. This project was made possible through funding from the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives. The Belize Red Cross collaborated with Help for Progress, a Non-governmental organization in the North to complete the project. Total cost of the project is $200,000 BZE.

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