Community Project Grants Report
Brandon Kitagawa, RPCV San Pedro 1999-2001
In 2015, due to the generosity of our donors, Full Basket Belize was able to award more grant dollars than it ever has before. This year’s grantees are tackling a diverse array of community-based projects ranging from teacher training across four schools in the Cayo District to building an “eco-park” in Trinidad Village (Orange Walk District) and from developing a school garden and education facility at a school in Santa Ana Village (Toledo District) to providing computer literacy and job training services for women in San Ignacio (Cayo District). In this issue we give you an update on their progress half-way through the year:
We are excited to see the progress of our grantees and are eagerly looking forward to seeing the impact these projects will have in their communities. Please join the FBB Board in applauding all the hard work of our 2015 Community Grant award winners!
If you would like to apply for a Full Basket Belize community project grant, please visit www.fullbasketbelize.org, look for the big yellow box stating 2016 Community Grant Application, and click on the APPLY button.
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 What do you do with an overgrown common area, non-biodegradable trash, empty plastic water bottles, used tires, and villagers who want a playground, exercise stations, and more? You form a dedicated group of volunteers, apply for a Full Basket Belize grant, and go to work.
This is exactly what the Trinidad Environmental Concerned Youth Group did. They have been working hard to make progress on their village’s Ecological Park.
The park includes a playground for children and other areas where families can play and have fun. There are picnic tables and an area where movies can be shown in the evenings. Exercise stations help villagers get out and improve their health in a safe environment.
With a limited budget and a desire to improve their environment, the group has been imaginative in their designs. Out of recycled tires, they have created a tire jumping station for fun and exercise. They have used more old tires to create a staircase in and out of the pool. They fashioned one “eco-bench” made from 50 recycled plastic bottles filled with non-biodegradable trash collected from the local school’s eco-block challenge. More such “eco-benches” are planned. This group is re-purposing trash into outdoor furniture that will benefit the entire community.
Isn’t it amazing what a little money and a lot of ingenuity and elbow grease can do to improve a village’s environment?
–photo courtesy of TECYG
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 BEP coordinates a cross-cultural teacher training program where teachers from Belize spend one week in a U.S. classroom and U.S. teachers spend one week in a Belizean classroom. The FBB grant supports specific teacher training on effective strategies and assessments on student literacy. BEP also has been able to leverage the FBB grant to gain additional resources that helped send 12,000 books to classrooms in Belize. Additionally, they found a strong interest in introducing technology into Belizean classrooms. So far they have used FBB funds to purchase a set of iPads that can rotate through classrooms as a pilot in one school. Preliminary results are positive, as both teachers and students are finding the resources available through technology to be effective in improving students’ reading abilities.
–photo courtesy of BEP
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That’s right, we need YOU! We are always looking for volunteers to help us with our project grant and scholarship programs, newsletters, fundraising, etc. If you have a little extra time, won’t you consider helping us out? Just drop us an email at volunteer@fullbasketbelize.org and let us know your talents or the areas where you’d like to help and we’ll get back to you.
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Cornerstone Foundation Prepares Women for Jobs
 Cornerstone’s computer literacy and job training program targeting women is in full swing. With the grant from FBB, Cornerstone was able to make their program more efficient by updating and networking their computers. Since the upgrades, they’ve seen a spike in demand. They are now offering three training sessions a day for women and youth with 12-16 students per session. Already one participant has seen her small business grow after incorporating her new computer skills into her work, and another student was able to gain the skills necessary to qualify for a job at a local call center.
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Creating an Outdoor Learning Center in Toledo
 At Santa Ana Government School, Plenty Belize, working with students, parents, teachers, and the community, has begun constructing an outdoor learning center which will include eight raised garden beds, a storage shed, and an area designed for teaching. Despite some reported challenges, all materials have been procured, one of the garden beds is complete, the shed foundation has been laid, and the center of the learning area has been constructed. The group hopes to finish up construction in time for students and teachers to make use of the new space in the coming school year.
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Previous Photo Identified
Congratulations to Roberto Coc of Belize for correctly identifying the last mystery photo as being Central Farm in Cayo. This is the experimental agricultural station for the Ministries of Agriculture and Fisheries and also a campus of University of Belize.
–mystery photos courtesy of Kristi Drexler
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Full Basket Belize relies on your support to help our friends in Belize. Remember that 100% of every dollar donated goes to our scholarship and project grant programs. Please visit our website atwww.fullbasketbelize.org and click on the big orange button to donate today. If you prefer, you can mail us a check at Full Basket Belize, PO Box 29021, Portland OR 97296. Tonks!
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Full Basket Belize improves the education, health, and environment of Belizean communities and supports youth and community economic development through educational scholarships and community grants.
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