The school, owned by the RC diocese in Belize City, is not owned by
the villagers of Caye Caulker, but they essentially manage it. The
manager is a priest on the mainland, who drops by every ten years or so.
A local parish priest visits monthly, or tries to for mass. The
Government of Belize pays most of the bills for the school, through a
Church/State arrangement and technically the Catholics on the mainland
administer the management and Government of Belize teacher salaries.
Government teacher salaries and school supplies are funneled via the
Education Department through the local Catholic Priest manager at the
Church in Belize City.
That said, the school is essentially destroyed. The roof is gone and
the interior ruined by rain damage. The school requires everything, from
blackboards, to childrens books, to encyclopedia sets ( please do not
send the supermarket variety ), books, computers, a typewriter or three,
chalk, eraser brushes, brooms, all those CD-ROMs that are educational,
games and such to go with computers, kindergarten and 1st through 3 rd
grade teaching aids especially needed. Like playing cards with tropical
birds, puzzles, number and arithmetic type games, exercise books by
several thousand, pens and pencils. The school normally runs around 400
children in eight grades. They will have to start from scratch.
To send cash donations to replace the school roof zinc, to pay for
labor and materials from a contractor. Send your money to the RC SCHOOL
Caye Caulker PTA, c/o The Caye Caulker Village Council Hurricane
Emergency Committee. I estimate $16,000 USA should replace the roof.
It is a very long school. They also need sports stuff, like soccer
balls, baseball equipment, basketball and volleyball equipment.
If you can think of it, they need it all. Totally ruined. It's a mess!
If your not too happy about sending your money via such a methodology.
You can mail a cheque to the Belize Development Trust , account number
33001397, at Turnberry Bank, Pinecrest, 9300 S. Dixie Highway, Pinecrest,
Fl. 33156.
If you send me an e-mail on how much you sent and what specific
purpose; e.g.; school roof, or classroom supplies and such, I'll see it
gets forwarded to the right persons. My wife was the school principal
for 30 years, I did it too off and on.
If you have supplies, I suggest you send them down to the recommended
PTA address via the Houston flight going. Hyde Shipping also have a
container weekly going out of Tampa, Fl. We can fill one here in Miami,
either whole or in part. If you want to specifically donate something
like new computers, games and that sort of thing and not sure of what to
get, be glad to do it for you, if you send enough cash to cover CIF
Belize City. Stuff can be purchased locally, and as an ex-Principal I
have a good idea of what they need. Things can go direct to Hyde Shipping.
I'm afraid if you ship via the Education Department, or the RC School
Manager in Belize City, stuff might just get sidetracked to some other
needy school in Belize. If you want to ship direct, please address to
the RC School Relief Supplies on Caye Caulker, c/o the Village Council
Hurricane Emergency Committee on Caye Caulker. The replacement of the
roof, they basically just need money. A lot of money! That also can be
done through the Village Council, but if you would like to ensure it goes
for the roof, we can do so via the local bank on the island and the PTA
and current Principal and teaching staff.
Ray Auxillou , Trustee
Belize Development Trust/Caye Caulker
AmbergrisCaye.com 
