Scotia Bank plans to invest $178,000 over the next five years to ensure that 250 primary school children make it through to standard six and on to high school. It's called Scotia's Youth Education Program, the brain child of Scotia's country manager Pat Andrews. He says that after studying the staggering statistics on the dropout rate of students from standard six to high school, he had to do something.
Pat Andrews, Country Manager
"About six to seven months ago we looked at a study that had been prepared by UNICEF on the youths of Belize and something struck me quite deeply. The study indicated that only 62% of the primary school students moved on to secondary school and we thought that needed attention so along with our senior management team and our branches we started to think about ways where we could basically begin focusing on the youths.
We sent up a proposal to our parent, the Bank of Nova Scotia, and it also moved them and a couple months ago they gave us $100,000 in Canadian Dollars which is equivalent to about BZ$178,000 and that money we will be using as a perpetual fund to be able to do several things here in Belize.
With the assistance of our staff in Belize we want to have fundraisers and various activities throughout the year to fund or replenish that fund that we've set."
50 Students will be helped annually. If you are wondering how your child can qualify, the Scotia branch offices will be contacting schools in their areas for the names of students are in need of help.
