Hundreds of students get free back to school accessories

Carla Jennings

School will be re-opening in a matter of weeks and some eight hundred students are already getting ready for the new school year with some much needed assistance. For over ten years the students are being sponsored by donors in the U.S. through the Hearts of Christ Children’s Ministry. The primary, high school and university level students are the recipients of uniforms, school supplies and tuition fees. Acting President of the organization, Carla Jennings, tells us about the program.

Carla Jennings, Acting President, Hearts of Christ Children’s Ministry

“The Ministry here, Christian Ministry that supports children from Infant One through Form Four for school scholarships. We’ve been coming since 2002 as Hearts of Christ. Presently we have about eight hundred and twenty students that are sponsored. Today is day one of the distribution. We came in July for registration and all the students bring their book list and report cards. Today they come for their back packs, all their school supplies and their text books, uniforms. And we are doing high school students today. We have about two hundred students that we will see and process today.”

Andrea Polanco

“Alright and these students are from right here in surrounding communities?”

Carla Jennings

“Yes, we have various villages. We work in fifty four schools through-out Belize. Probably the high school students are from fifteen schools we are working in today.”

Andrea Polanco

“Okay, how do you identify these students; how do you select them to be a part of your program?”

Carla Jennings

“We try to select by the principals and teachers contacting us about students that need help. Presently we are taking a few Infant One and Infant Two students this year but with the excessive number of students that we have, we are not taking any higher class students because we have many there already. But we might take a few of the Infant Ones and Infant Twos this year.”