News for April-May 2015

Mel Honig May 6, 2015 Newsletter

BELIZE MISSION 8 April-May 2015

The Rotary Team of Mel Honig, Kent, Stacey and Scott Iler just returned from their mission trip to Belize. Seventeen (17) resource centers were set up in primary schools in four of the Districts of Belize.

It is estimated that approximately 7000 students will benefit from the resource centers placed in schools during this mission. A listing of the schools served follows after the photos.

The Mission in Pictures

: The Ohio team at the Rotary Club of Orange Walk weekly meeting. Once again the Rotary Club of Orange Walk took responsibility for the acceptance of the container and arranged for the unloading and storage of the educational equipment until it could be distributed.

: Team members at the Rotary Club of Dangriga weekly meeting. Elcedia Awe, Principal of Solid Rock Primary School (seated second from right) and Tanya Nunez of the Ministry of Education, Stann Creek office (not pictured) selected the schools in the Stann Creek and Toledo Districts that received resource centers.

: Eleanor Carillo (standing on left), instructor at the Corozal Junior College and participating in her fourth mission, selected the schools in Orange Walk and Corozal Districts.

: What was left of product stored in Orange Walk after half was sent south to Alta Vista.

: Product divided by schools and ready for pickup.

: One truck loaded and ready to go to one of 8 schools in the Orange Walk/Corozal Districts.

: There was some extra room so medical equipment was placed on the container for the Orange Walk Northern Regional Hospital. Shown is one of the nurses from the hospital checking out the donated medical equipment. Not only were they happy to get the medical equipment we sent but they also gave us a list of other needed equipment.

: Ministry of Health trucks picking up the medical equipment for the hospital.

: Loading the truck with product for Stann Creek and Toledo District schools. The diesel for the donated truck and driver was $400 USD with the schools paying half and RCI half.

: The truck was brought to the Community Center at Alta Vista where it was unloaded. When we went there several days after the product arrived we were assured that it would not rain so we sorted everything on the basketball court.

: After distribution of product each school was visited by the team to help set up their resource center. After checking out the situation the first thing we did was to put tables together for the placement of computers.

: The next item of business is for team member Mel Honig to build shelves for the books.

: Team member Stacey Iler then sorted the books.

: Team members Scott Iler (on left) and Kent Iler installed the educational software. On the March mission to Jamaica all the computers were installed with educational software prior to shipment. This was not done on the computers sent to Belize. Kent spent a lot of time on the phone, or internet (when available) to install ‘drivers’ necessary for the software computers to be functional. Our computer donation program is now unique in that we provide educational software for grades preschool through 4 (3 year to 11 year old children) on each donated computer. Headphones were also provided with the computers as the software programs were ‘voice’ dependent.

: The previous 4 pictures shows us working alone, but this was far from the case. We were almost always surrounded by helpers. Here we are unloading tools as we prepare to work at the Maya Mopan school in the Toledo District.

: Kent receiving help.

: After Scott installed the educational software the young lady to his right started using the program (Jump Start). After the bell rang she was still there and had to be pulled away by her classmates so should she would not miss her next class.

: One of Scott’s jobs was to inflate the soccer balls. Two were distributed at each school. Soccer is the major sport among the youth of Belize and each school has a soccer (football) field.

: After all the computers were down loaded with software Kent or Scott gave a tutorial to the Principal and teachers on how to use the software.

: A finished resource center. Most of the time the toys and games were brought to the preschool, or infant 1/infant 2 classrooms (our equivalent of kindergarten, grades 1 and 2 respectively).

: All schools have a standardized uniform but at the discretion of the principal, schools have dress down days when the children can wear any clothing they prefer.

: More Smiles

: Resource Centers International believes that through education we can make our world a better place to live in. We are working in countries and with people who share our viewpoint… thus making our mission much easier to achieve.

List of schools served

District	School	Principal
Stann Creek	United Community Primary	Anthony Zuniga
	Maya Mopan	Ewart Caballero
	Solid Rock	Elcedia Awe
	Epworth Methodist	Gilda Wagner
	Holy Ghost	Juliette Williams
	Hope Creek Methodist	Gladys Jackson
	Zion Adventist	Emilia Montejo
Toledo	San Isidro	Anselma Woolery
	Trio	Adon Marcelo Arzu
Corozal	Patchakan Catholic	Teobalda Ruiz
	Lady of Guadalupe	Emmanuel Gonzalez
	Louisville RC	Ruth Coba
	Assemblies of God	Jesus Catzim
Orange Walk	Trial Farm	Nazira Romero
	San Estevan	Leticia Perez
	San Lazaro	Pedro A. Sanchez
	Guinea Grass RC	Crecencio Cocom

The following schools that received resource centers on previous missions were visited and the educational software programs were installed on their computers

Nuevo San Juan
Douglas

Donations of Equipment were given to the following

Corozal Community College
Orange Walk Library
Orange Walk Northern Regional Hospital

Donations

Educational Equipment and Materials

Two drives were conducted at the Mercy College of Ohio (Toledo, Ohio). One by the American Assembly of Men in Nursing (AAMN) and the other by the 330 Nursing classes taught by Sharmeta Gibbon and Carla Gonyer. The advisors for the AAMN are Bobbi Pratte and Kate Cook with the President being Eric Hewitt. Collected were games, toys, books, games and video tapes.

Item	Donor	Expeditor	Rotary Club of
Books	Janice & George Costaras	George Costaras	Elyria Sunrise
Television	Denise Kohler	Gail Odneal

Monetary

Donor	Amount
Patricia Iler	$2000.00

Belize Mission Expenses

Item	Cost
Container Shipment	$4320.76
Guatemala and Port Expenses	1533.53
Belize Warehouse Rental	100.00
In Country Travel (car rental & gas)	502.00*
Educational Materials & Headphones	477.82**
Flooring	521.70
Hardware	24.01
Total Mission Cost	$7479.82***
Cost per location (schools, hospital etc.) served	$360.00

$200 of cost was to pay for diesel to get product from Orange Walk to Stann Creek
Does not include cost of books purchased from the Friends of the Library prior to January 2015.
Does not include the personal expenses of the four missioners.

JAMAICA MISSION UPDATE

Mission 2 to Jamaica is still in progress. The RCI/MESA container was released to the Rotary Club of Savanna-La-Mar during the first week of April. Everything was placed in two donated containers and is currently being distributed under the direction of Hilda Hibbert, the Jamaica Project Coordinator. Please look for our final report in next month's Newsletter, as the mission should be completed by then.

News for April-May 2015

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