The cameras and microphone holders have gone home and from a distance, it seems like everything in Corozal is just
hunky dory.
And, yes, Hurricane Dean came and went, but what it left behind is another story. Among the hardest hit were the fisherfolk in Sarteneja and Chunox. They still can’t fish productively because the waters remain turbid and un-navigable.
The adds up to meaningful losses in earnings, particularly painful as Christmas comes around.
But today the global fund did its part with the donation of 40 thousand in support money – the first tranche in a full grant of 240 thousand dollars. We were at the handing over.
Joseph Hendrikx, Assistant Resident Rep., UNDP Belize
“This is what we call the early recovery that runs into restoring livelihoods, now the first part was dealing with the agricultural issues on the mainland, but at the same time we were alerted that the fisheries sector was left out and I think we were provided with information that warranted that we start to move on the fisheries sector – that’s why this came up, replacing equipment and gear of fishermen that lost their gear, and therefore were affected in their livelihoods, you know, money for the families.”
Ovel Leonardo, Chairman, Northern Fishermen Cooperative
“We really lost a lotta money – the loss like for example our fishermen in Caye Caulker lost traps, shades, our fishermen in Sarteneja, Xunux and Copper Bank lost a lotta time and they still losing money because they can’t work like they used to do.”
Jules Vasquez, 7News
“How much would you say an average fisherman has lost.?”
Ovel Leonardo, Chairman, Northern Fishermen Cooperative
“I would say he lost, like, maybe, ten thousand dollars, and when you look at it, Northern have 400, 500 fishermen only from that area.”
“This lee bit that the fishermen will get will help them. Like for example in the case of fins, masks, dories, they have a great cost, like a dorie cost $800”
Joseph Hendrikx, Assistant Resident Rep., UNDP Belize
“The recovery phase takes about one to five years which means potentially that people will suffer as a result of the impact in their livelihoods between one to five years after the event of a disaster like a hurricane. So there’s people suffering in silence, we know of many women who are really in bad shape because they lost a little business, don’t have the opportunities to go for credit facilities, this is the first drop on a hot plate.”
Ovel Leonardo, Chairman, Northern Fishermen Cooperative
“I believe it will take a while before it get back to normal couple of the village that get the most hit are out biggest producers like Sarteneja, Xunox and Copper bank and also Caye Caulker. What I said earlier is that up to now, the water is still mucky, so for the fishermen our production is down.”
Again, that is the first installment for a full figure of $240,000.00. The money will be distributed through the co-ops.
