Journalist, anchor man and sometimes politician Orson Picart is hoping the public will support his organization's drive to provide 300 school bags to needy children living in Belize City's Southside.
He and other partners have created a new non-profit organization called Aspire for Greatness Foundation. In their first fundraising event, they are trying to give single parents in the city much-needed relief from one of the expenses that come with the new school year.
This afternoon, he spoke to us about the initiative:
Orson Picart - Aspire For Greatness Foundation
"Aspire For Greatness Foundation is an organization that I recently started. It's comprised of myself and a few of my colleagues, through this organization, we intend to do several social programs to positively impact children on the Southside of Belize City."
"So, the Back-to-School Backpack Drive was birthed out of a need to expand some of the social programs that I and a few of my colleagues have already begun to work on over the last few months. And so, we found it very necessary to be a conduit to assist children from single-parent households in continuing their education. We're living in financially tough times right now, exacerbated by the COVID pandemic. And so, one way that we can assist is through this backpack drive. And so, single parents, mothers particularly, can be relieved of one of those financial burdens that they would normally have to contend with when it comes to school time. We're targeting 300 children from single-parent households, particularly on the Southside of Belize City, because that's where I'm from. And, we intend to partner with international and local donors. And so, this is a call for Belizeans at home and abroad to be a part of this initiative and to assist by pledging to us some financial assistance, that would lend to us ordering the bags, sometime in July for distribution in August."
"This particular initiative has to do with that one-one cocoa-full basket mentality. So, we're not asking for an exorbitant amount of money. If you have $25 US, if you have S25 Belize to assist the cause, then we will be taking that because when everything is put together, we're hoping that we could reach a target amount of $2,000 Belize, which $1,000 US."
If you would like to donate to the initiative, you can reach Picart at 628-5880. You can also reach him via WhatsApp and his personal Facebook page.
