When we have an emergency, most of us probably don't even think twice about picking up the phone and calling for an ambulance. And with its fleet of 5 ambulances in the city - in addition to an air ambulance - BERT receives 250 calls a month and one hundred of those are emergencies. Well don't call 911 for them just yet, but BERT is the one now in need of help and today it got some help from a corporate friend. But as Keith Swift found out, ten grand is just the tip of the iceberg.
Keith Swift Reporting,
This morning BEL's CEO Lyn Young handed over a check for $10,000 to Belize Emergency Response Team's board Chairman Arsenio Burgos. It's a relatively small check from a company which earns more than a hundred million dollars every year, but BERT's coordinator Yvette Burks says it's a big help to them.
Yvette Burks, BERT's Coordinator
"It's earmarked for already for equipment. We have to replenish some of our stock that's getting a little bit old and obsolete. We have been trying and make ends meet."
And BERT is trying to make ends meet because Chairman Arsenio Burgos says that after seven years - the not-for profit paramedic company's primary source of funding has dried up.
Arsenio Burgos, Chairman - BERT
"The Wagner Foundation provided a yearly grant for five years to allow BERT time to establish its capacity. We have arrived there at capacity and that grant has also now been removed. We no longer are receiving a grant by the Wagner Foundation. Our hope of sustainability is pinned on NHI and until that scheme is implemented, BERT will continue to rely on Belizean good will to provide funding."
And that's why CEO Lyn Young says BEL decided to help.
Lyn Young, CEO of BEL
"We really feel good but when you look at the general community, obviously the services is direly needed in Belize. I mean every weekend when we look at the news, I can just imagine what the people at BERT are going through, with the number of trauma and accidents and stabbings and stuff that happens.
Last year Yvette approached me. She is the manager of BERT and she explained to me that BERT was losing some of its grant funding and they've been working on different strategies to make their operations sustainable without reducing the quality and the services that is offering. And in fact she was showing me the number of calls they get a week and this is a reflection of the times and she's been talking to members of the private sector to try to get some assistance so I told her yes, I committed right there and then that we will get involved."
The company donated $10,000 this year and has committed another $5,000 annually in the short term. But it'll take the generosity of more companies like BEL to keep BERT's ambulances on the road. Yvette Burks says that is because while they'd prefer for customers to pay for the ambulance service, they can't force them to.
Yvette Burks,
"We cannot force you to pay. We may tell you would you like to donate, you can give nothing or come in and give one hundred which hasn't happened but you can certainly ask for a donation but you can't demand one. Because not all our runs are billable, unfortunately the ones which are either receivables or not chargeable ones are more than the ones that are paid so it doesn't offset and that is why we are so heavily dependent on grants such as this one to assist us to maintain the quality of our service."
A service which Chairman Burgos says can easily be credited with saving thousands of lives.
Arsenio Burgos,
"BERT provides a needed service and has saved hundreds of lives. If you do the mathematics, we do a hundred emergency calls per month which is 1,200 per year and we've been in service over seven years that I am aware of. So you add those numbers and we have affected a lot of Belizean lives."
And now that its BERT that needs saving - and it's left to be seen how many other companies will answer their call for help.
BERT receives a subvention from government which helps it to meet some of its operating expenses. BEL has again committed $10,000 for this year and $5,000 annually for at least the next two years.
And to tighten up on something we alluded to in the story, BEL's earnings for the year ending December 2006 are $149.5 million up $30 million from the year before, leading to profits of $26.084 million moving the company's net income past BTL for the fist time.
