This morning, the National Institute of Culture and History launched a grants program for Belizeans just in time for the upcoming September Celebrations. 40 successful applicants can get access to a thousand dollars in funding for a creative or innovative project that fits in with this year's September Celebrations theme.
As viewers are aware, the ongoing COVID pandemic has forced all events with large crowds to be sidelined for public health and public safety. So, much like last year, all patriotic events have to be done virtually or be significantly downsized for crowd control reasons.
So, the National September Celebrations Commission has decided to fund the creativity of Belizeans who can come up with innovative or artistic projects that fit in with this year's celebration.
This morning, the President of NICH, who co-chairs the National September Celebrations Commission, granted the press a short briefing on what applicants need to do to qualify. Here are those comments:
Sapna Budhrani - President, NICH
"It's just a short launch, a call for the grants that we have, Innovative grants. This year's theme is 'Belize at 40, Hopeful Hearts, Steady Hands, Together We Rise'. Keeping the theme in mind, and keeping the Plan Belize in mind, we're planning to give 40 grants of a thousand dollars. We're launching it. We started yesterday, but today is like the official call."
"This is 40 grants that will be given out. Is this the first call? Is it going to be rotated? Is it 40 grants at the start? It depends on the applications that we receive. If we receive a lot of applications and we're able to find the 40 applicants, the successful ones, then we would be giving out the 40 grants. If not, then there may be another call. How do you go about it? You can get the application form from our website, from our Facebook page, contact the NICH offices, or email nationalcelebrations@nichbelize.org, and you can get a copy. The application form is about 11 questions long. It is quite straightforward."
"Who's eligible for it? Anyone who has any innovative or creative. It's an idea, any product, any project, any business idea, whatever you want, whatever you have in mind. The Plan Belize speaks about an art fund; this is not necessarily only to art fund, but this could be the jump-start to keeping that in mind. The funds have been received from the Government of Belize and the Government of Taiwan. They're our major supporters. This is a National Celebrations Commissions initiative, and so the funds have been gotten from both entities for now."
"We all know how COVID-19 has affected us economically, socially. So, this is more an upliftment, trying to help those who have an innovative idea. If we look around for grants, if we've seen what the government has done, we've done items for the pantry, for businesses, for agriculture. But, seldom has anything been done for creators and innovators."
Again, you can get the application form from NICH's website, from their Facebook page, contact the NICH offices, or email them at nationalcelebrations@nichbelize.org. The deadline for applications is August 31st.
