Our Projects
Our motto is “Service Above Self” and we carry out many projects every year, all of which serve the Belizean community in myriad ways.
Established Flagship Projects
Throughout its over 60 years of active life, the Rotary Club of Belize has completed numerous projects in all walks of life, beginning with the construction of the Stella Maris School, Belize’s only school for the handicapped, to the foundation of the BERT Ambulance Service, to the establishment of Crime Stoppers in Belize, a countrywide service that enables witnesses of a crime to make anonymous reports via a toll-free 800 number.
We have four established flagship projects and we invite you to click on their links to learn more about them.
The Gift of Life (GOL) is the flagship project for the Rotary Club of Belize. Since 1977, we have partnered with US hospitals to provide lifesaving heart surgery to over 275 children across the country.
Every year, two clinics are hosted to identify new cases of Congenital Heart Disease. We are very proud of this program’s continued achievements and as a visiting nurse once pointed out, Belize is the only country where our Rotary Club is responsible for helping 100% of the country’s children with Congenital Heart Disease.
Crime Stoppers is a community-based service, which enables members of the general public to anonymously provide information about unsolved crimes,
Belize Emergency Response Team (BERT) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization. BERT specializes in pre-hospital care in the form of emergency response and transportation.
Established in 1998 with the help of the Wagner Foundation of Wisconsin, USA and concerned Rotarians (Arsenio Burgos, John Woods, Philip Zuniga, Yvette Burks, Marcelo Coyi MD). It is a non-profit, non-governmental organization.
BERT provides ambulatory care (both land and air) and EMT training services for Belize.
Kolbe Foundation has made tremendous success by keeping to its mission of maintaining a secure and humane facility geared towards meaningful rehabilitation and reintegration.
In 2001, Rotarian John Woods was asked by the then Minister of Prisons to bring together a group of business persons in an effort to identify ways to improve The Belize Central Prison.
Kolbe Foundation has made tremendous success by keeping to its mission of maintaining a secure and humane facility geared towards meaningful rehabilitation and reintegration. It is the only known, privately managed non-profit prison in the world.
Latest Projects
Ongoing Projects
This program was founded by one of our past presidents, Mrs. Yvette Burks Barnes. Yvette coordinates all logistics to get burn victims to the Shriners Hospital in the USA. We proudly continue to support this project.
Over the past 12 years, our feeding program has been dedicated to
providing lunch for more than 120 children attending St. Joseph
Primary School and Ebenezer Elementary School. In collaboration
with West University (Houston), we expanded our reach in the 2016-2017 school year to include an additional 200 children from St. Martin De Porres School. Today, our program benefits a total of 300 children across three primary schools: St. Joseph R.C. Primary School, the Salvation Army Primary School, and Ebenezer Methodist School.
Our Rotary Club along with the Wheelchair Foundation and several partnering Clubs have provided over 3,400 wheelchairs to those in need.
Over 15 full scholarships and 10 tuition grants are given out annually. In 2016, we established an “Education Trust Fund” to secure a sustainable scholarship source.
Partnering with the Emmanuel Foundation, Canadian Rotary and
Interact Clubs, and local Belizean Rotary, Rotaract, and Interact Clubs, we have coordinated the construction of over 30 playgrounds across our country.
Our Rotary Club has been building homes for families in dire situations for many years. The Woodlands Methodist Church and the Rotary Club of West U now help us build two homes every year. These homes provide a secure shelter for struggling families.
Global Grant Projects
The Rotary Club of Belize and the Rotary Club of Jasper (Canada) are implementing a global grant at Ocean Academy High School in Caye Caulker, Belize District. Ocean Academy is the only High School on this island.
The goal of this global grant is to upgrade the Ocean Academy High School so as to better fulfill the Ministry of Education’s vision to increase access to secondary education for young islanders in addition to improving the secondary school completion rate across the country.
This grant was implemented for refurbishing and making improvements to school infrastructure, providing books for classes, purchasing of computers for a computer lab, training the trainers/teachers, and providing scholarships to needy students.
This global grant value is $132,000 BZ/$66,000.00 US.
This global grant is a partnership between the Rotary Club of Belize and the Rotary Club of Edmonton, Canada. The goal of the project is to strengthen the capacity of the south side community of Belize City to support basic education and literacy, reduce gender disparity in education, and increase adult literacy. This project will benefit 4,000 plus persons, mostly children.
The project includes the delivering of readers to 35 classroom libraries, the building of 1 school library, the setting up of 3 rhymes that binds programs, and the setting up of computer assisted learning programs in conjunction with Restore Belize.
The Grant value is $143,200 BZ /$71,500 US.
Past Projects
Our Club holds an annual luncheon for the elderly. We treat them not only to lunch but we provide entertainment for them. Rotarians take part in this event and we use the occasion to continue our club fellowship after the folks have been taken back to their various homes.
Over the past 12 years, our feeding program has been dedicated to
providing lunch for more than 120 children attending St. Joseph
Primary School and Ebenezer Elementary School. In collaboration
with West University (Houston), we expanded our reach in the 2016-2017 school year to include an additional 200 children from St. Martin De Porres School. Today, our program benefits a total of 300 children across three primary schools: St. Joseph R.C. Primary School, the Salvation Army Primary School, and Ebenezer Methodist School.
Our Rotary Club along with the Wheelchair Foundation and several partnering Clubs have provided over 3,400 wheelchairs to those in need.
