For weeks we've been telling you about schools that have been forced to close when COVID came knocking on their campus gates. It's a pandemic problem that's threatening to undermine all the Ministry of Health's efforts to get kids back in the classroom.
But that won't be the case at St. Martin's Deporess Primary school, that's because of a massive donation of sanitization supplies and equipment gifted to the south side school today by UNICEF and the U.S. Embassy. I attended the very clean, very Covid safe handing over ceremony.
Saint Martin De Porres Primary school played hosts to some very important guests this morning as UNICEF in partnership with the government of Belize and the U.S. The Embassy donated COVID prevention equipment including 157 sanitization stands and 98 gallons of liquid hand sanitizers - relief supplies reduced by two pressing disasters:
Alison Parker, UNICEF Country Rep
"UNICEF also has 5 year cooperation plan with the government of Belize. So we've been supporting the government of Belize over the last 5 years and the US government has been an integral part of that incremental support to the government, so this is just one of many initiatives that we have together, but this particular intervention was link to covid19 last year when we recognize that the schools were closed and that distance learning had to be provided and at the same time some of the same families were impacted by hurricanes ETA and IOTA. So the support from the U.S. government came to support those families and show that we can go house to house and deliver some of the most needed humanitarian support to them and this included the same ECD kits, hygiene kits as well as some tools for the caregivers, the mothers and the parents to take care of their children."
UNICEF Belize also donated five Early Childhood Development Kits for children in vulnerable communities and schools. The kits will be used to promote early stimulation and learning for children during COVID-19. And Learning is just what Minister of Education Francis Fonseca stressed the importance of this morning.
Hon. Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
"Our students particularly our most vulnerable students have been so, so badly and negatively impacted by the past year being out of school. We have many rural communities in Belize where in many cases most of our poorest students lives. In those communities many of those students do not have access to remote learning, because they did not have access to digital devices or the internet, so we had to and we have been addressing that working along with our partners."
Keith Gilges, Charge d' Affaires
"So this is part of a broader strategy as the Minister talked about, as Alison talked about. If we're going to defeat COVID it takes everything from vaccinations to the sanitization stations, people accepting and enforcing the protocols doing everything we as individuals can do to make sure that we are limiting the possibility of this disease spreading further. We can't eliminate the risk, but we can do our best to manage it and so by putting in these sanitization
stations at schools we are giving the tools to the students and the teachers to try to ensure that they limit the likelihood that COVID can be transmitted within the school, we can't eliminate the risk but we can manage it and that's what this donation is about."
Gilges also stressed that these wash bins and hand sanitisers are weapons in the fight against COVID.
Sanitization stands and liquid hand sanitizers will be distributed to schools nationwide as determined by the Ministry of Education.
