But many of the residents who just can't wait are those who are also desperate for some sort of income to feed their families. And that's why the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security collaborated with the Embassy of Taiwan and Food for the Poor to give farmers in Cayo and Belize a chance to turn a donation into a steady flow of income. Farmers from Benque Viejo, Succotz, and Corozalito were given high quality breeding sheep and the training necessary to start a business. Courtney Menzies was at the handing over ceremony and has this story.
Teach a man to fish or in this case rear sheep and you can feed him for a lifetime. That's the idea behind the Sheep and Goat project, a collaboration between the Taiwanese Embassy, the Ministry of Agriculture, and Food for the Poor.
20 beneficiaries will be going home with 85 sheep each today that they will later turn into a source of income. The Minister explained that this is the first step towards food security for the beneficiaries.
Hon. Jose Mai - Minister of Agriculture
"I think we've heard about Food for the Poor in the past giving out food to people and helping the people that are needy. Today I think they've diversified their activities, what they're doing is giving out sheep, improved genetic sheep to farmers in Benque and Succotz. I think it's a good move, you know the saying that says you don't give them a fish, you teach them to fish so I think what they're doing now is teaching the people to produce their own food so they give out good genetic, improve breeds of sheep to improve the livelihoods of people, I think it's a very good move, I applaud that effort, and they have now purchased the sheep from our improved genetic program in Central Farm and giving out to these farmers."
H.E. David Chien - Taiwanese Ambassador
"This sheep and goat project it's a first time that we worked with Food for the Poor, the charity institution based in the US and also collaborate with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise and we sincerely hope this project will be beneficial to the local goat and sheep farmers and also enhance the benefits of the local farmers and also as you know Taiwan is a faithful ally of Belize and my embassy looks forward to continue to work with the Belizean government."
But it doesn't end here because the next step of the project includes training the beneficiaries so that they make the most out of this donation.
Daniel Juan - Member, Team Management for Project
"The sheep are, two main purposes, one of them is for the beneficiaries to have food security and additional income but in addition they have receiving technical workshops on sheep rearing and financial literacy. We hope that this new set of skills and knowledge that they are receiving can transcend beyond the realm of sheep and can assist them in other aspect. There are going to be a total of 8 trainings, they have already received 4, two on financial literacy and two on sheep rearing. That of course is all on schedule so we are on schedule with all of the trainings. For example the sheep training has to do with nutrition and parasite management and reproduction and then the financial literacy trainings are on budgeting and basic accounting and how to manage your credit and stuff like that. Once you learn about basic accounting and basic bookkeeping you can take those skills and implement them in other aspect of life."
And it was Taiwan's partnership with Food for the Poor, which is a non-profit Christian Organization, that made this project possible.
Diego Tsai - Chief of Taiwan Technical Mission in Belize
"Through the organization we would like to assist any country or place that need help especially our Taiwanese ally countries so for Belize, Food for the Poor is funding most of the project and because they knew we have a sheep project, also have good quality sheep and also have consultants in Belize so they provided the fund of the project and we provide the knowledge and skills in the project."
Food for the Poor also provided the guidelines used to choose the beneficiaries.
If this project is a success, those involved will try to expand it to other areas of the country.
