Edmund Castro says that Belize Rural North has been abandoned. Sure that’s his political pitch, but Castro has also been putting in the work, patching holes on the highway and now trying to get an affordable bus carrier for students on the Old Northern Highway route. With the help of a bus company he began a school run to and from the villages this morning. We were at Maskall when residents got the news.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
UDP Standard Bearer for Belize Rural North Edmund Castro organized residents of the Old Northern Highway. The main issue up for discussion on this Sunday at the Maskall Community Center was the transportation of students to and from the villages along the Old Highway. After making a plea for anyone to help Castro says National Transportation Services Limited was first to step up.
Edmund Castro,
“Anybody that came up to try and assist us and assist the students of the Old Road we will be willing to talk with and to work out something with. It could have been Said, I wish the Prime Minister was here because his Ministers three years ago came here and they promised to assist us and we received nothing so far.
We are going with bare minimum trying to get the fuel so that we could give to the bus so that the bus can take our children. The cost of transportation of children from Old Road to high school in Ladyville and Belize City is killing us. I have done some math here where we have completed a breakdown to show a person making $150 a week, when they take out $30 a week for the student to go to school, that child – one child –they are left with $120. And the parent has to pay $40 a week for him or herself to go to work and that is another $40. You are down to $80. If you give $25 to your student to eat all day, which is $5 a day for the week, you’re down to $55. If you give yourself another $5 to eat from in the morning until you get back home, you spend another $25. So you are down at $30, making a $150 for a single parent to end up with one child in high school because of the cost of transportation. You are down to $30. It is ridiculous.”
And what he calls the ridiculousness of that situation had Castro and National Transportation come up with an agreement where the bus company is to supply a bus basically free of cost. The company is to pay for the driver and the bus’s upkeep while the community is to come up with fuel. It’s a sound arrangement that National’s Manager Phillip Jones says is simply a way of giving back.
Phillip Jones, National Transport
“We at National believe that it was needed and we had to step in and assist Mr. Castro and the villagers as quick as possible. We need to help. We saw there was a great need and we provided the service to assist Mr. Castro with the students here. We plan to continue it until something is worked out for the students and until then we’ll continue to offer this service to assist the villagers here at Maskall from National Transport.”
Those most appreciative of the arrangement are the students who on Sunday were part of the meeting and who say the venture will make their travel to and from school significantly cheaper. Among them is Johnny Ramos who travels to Ladyville Tech, Nyreese Castro who attends St. Johns Junior College and Kyla Castro who come to school at Nazarene High.
Kyla Castro,
“Sometimes they go before the time or sometimes after…I have to pay $1.50.”
Nyreese Castro,
“I go to St. John’s sixth form and sometimes I have to catch the bus or sometimes I come with my dad but most of the times I have to come with my dad because the bus is too expensive, like $2-$3 to go and $2-$3 to come back. I believe it is a very good idea because it is cheaper for us and it is cheaper for most people. People don’t have to spend that much and you’ll have extra money to eat, you’ll have extra money to do lots of other things that you need to do. The bus leaves at 5:20 in the morning and sometimes if the bus driver goes at 5:15 and so I have to get up at like 4-4:30 to catch a bus. I have to walk way from my house to catch a bus out here and sometimes by the time I get out here the bus is already gone and sometimes they leave before the time.”
National Transportation will continue this run until there is a solution to the lack of school buses in the area.
