Remember Hurricane Dean from August of last year? Well, the people of northern Belize can’t forget it; in one way or the other they live with the memory of that storm everyday. And so it was on Tuesday when the rehabilitated Xaibe Primary School was inaugurated. That building took a pounding in the storm: the entire roof, windows, doors, furniture, electrical installations and verandah were damaged. And it’s been a group effort to get the school back to 100% plus – and that plus is because it had to be rehabilitated to function as a proper hurricane shelter capable of withstanding category four storms. Our colleagues from Channel 10 in Orange Walk were there for the inauguration.
Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
This is how the Xaibe Roman Catholic Primary School looked on August twenty first, 2007 after Hurricane Dean did major damage in the Corozal District, battering the building and leaving it unsuitable for classes. When we visited it was being used as a relief outpost by the British Army.
Almost seven months later the structure has been completely renovated and on April second the principals, teachers and three hundred students celebrated because on that day everything returned to normal when the one hundred and ten students who were displaced returned to the classrooms. The children an their teachers were relocated to the community centre where the conditions were not ideal for learning.
Jacinta Reyes, Principal
“When the children are in their separate classrooms with partitions, there is less distractions and children can pay better attention to their individual teachers. It was an open space and everybody was together. The building was all congested.”
Nemencio Acosta, Area Representative
“The roof was completely damaged and as a result of that our children had to find out shelter so that they could have their classes. And we know that
the community center was used but it was not in good condition. So this is very important because the children will now again start to enjoy conducive places for learning.”
Jacinta Reyes,
“But I can say that I had a good staff, that the teachers that were in the community center did a very good job to see that everything worked well and thanks to the vice-principal who was in charge there and he was there as the principal and everything worked very well. Now our children are back in school and I hope to continue working along with them hand in hand so we can continue having a better school and better students.”
The building’s roof that was completely destroyed along with all of the furniture has been replaced. The rehabilitation cost over $128,000 and it was made possible by the Social Investment Fund, the Canada Fund for local initiatives, the Ministry of Education, the community of Xaibe and businesses like the Atlantic Bank and Belize Natural Energy Limited.
Daniel Guiterrez, Representative- BNE
“As a company that hires Belizeans and proudly markets Belizean resources around the region, around the world, that it was only natural for us to step in when something happened, even though this is way north of where BNE operates because BNE works mostly in the northern Cayo District. We still feel as Belizeans we are obliged to do something after the storm and thus the reason for us being here.”
Oscar Alonzo, Executive Director - SIF
“We now hope that the children who were displaced because of the hurricane and had to be suffering in conditions of their classes, will now have appropriate facilities for them to undertake their studies.”
120 students and 14 teachers use the school.
