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The
Children of Billy White want to say hello!
BELIZE:
Child labor in Billy White, Belize begins at the age of
12 (often younger) when children complete 6th grade and government-provided
education ends. Due to the limited resources of families, the children seek jobs
in the local chicken farms or tortilla factories, working for $5 USD per week to
supplement family income. Without continued educational opportunities, children
are trapped with no hope for the future.
Obviously, most families from villages in and around Billy White live in dire
poverty and do not have the
means to send their children into neighboring San Ignacio (a 45-minute bus ride)
for secondary education. Often the cost of secondary education is more than the
families annual income. With this bleak picture, it is the goal of ROWKIDS to
end the cycle of poverty and child exploitation by giving the children and families
of Billy White and the neighboring villages a brighter future.
In Belize, a student needs the proper school
supplies, even though their elementary education is paid by the government. Often families from these villages cannot even afford a pencil and paper for the children’s
schooling.
In Belize, the government does not pay for secondary education and without
either a vocational or secondary education, the children in Billy White usually
ends up working for below subsistence wages in a chicken
coup or tortilla factory in slave-labor type environments. This outcomes keeps the cycle of
poverty alive, continuing into the next generation. ROWKIDS is here to break
that cycle!!
Breaking the Cycle!
Become a part of changing the future of these
children and break that cycle! Your help can bring a child and families new and exciting opportunities.
With additional education comes independence and personal responsibility,
allowing students to give back to their own
communities.
ROWKIDS provides school supplies, books, and services to small elementary
village
schools in Belize, like Billy White. ROWKIDS provides opportunities for continued education in two different ways. The Cayo
Center for Employment Training (CCET) is a 2-3 year course of study providing
students with skills needed to realize careers in a variety of fields, such as
automotive repair, food preparation, and tourism & hospitality. ROWKIDS sponsors the children to CCET at a cost of $2,000 per student per year for tuition, supplies, books, clothes,
and transportation.
The second opportunity is assisting students to
obtain a traditional
secondary education at Sacred Heart
Academy or Eden. The associated costs of approximately $550 per
student per year include annual tuition per student, transportation to/from
their village to San Ignacio, books and supplies required for specific course of
study, and health insurance.
Making a Difference in Belize:
  
In February 2006, ROWKIDS sponsored five
children ranging in age from 15 to 18 from Billy White to the Cayo Center for Employment Training (CCET). CCET
provides the children with
marketable job skills that allow the student to obtain a job that pays above the
local poverty line. Of the five children sponsored last year, two have already
obtained well-paying jobs, while two others are currently enrolled in their
second year of a vocational program. One of them has already been hired to work
at a bank at the end of her second year.
 
The Belize programs have enjoyed great success in
the Billy White school over the past year. ROWKIDS was able to provide school
supplies, books, computers, and other educational material to the Billy White
School. Before ROWKIDS started working with the primary school in Billy
White, very few of the more than 80 children had ever used a textbook or had necessary
school supplies. Before ROWKIDS support, most of the children
going to school at Billy White had to share a pencil between six or more
children. Now all the students have access to the necessary
textbooks and school supplies for the entire core curriculum! Now they can now
learn and their enthusiasm is overwhelming!
The Billy White school never had a student score
more than a 50% on the Belize secondary school entrance exam. As of June 2007, Billy White School finished the school
year with 90 of the 92 children still in school. These improved results
compared to the usual 30% dropout rate in past years. For the first time in the school’s history, they
graduated eight students who passed the entrance exam. ROWKIDS is
sponsoring ALL EIGHT to Eden Secondary School starting in September.
ROWKIDS is also sending five children (four that
graduated in June and one going into the second year of high school) to Eden
High School from Duck Run 3 elementary school, (Duck Run 3 is a village about 2 miles from Billy White). ROWKIDS is
sending five more young people to the job training school CCET this year along
with the ones we already have there.
Here is the pictures of the Graduation from the
Billy White Primary School that ROWKIDS sponsored:
 
To see additional pictures from the Graduation
that ROWKIDS sponsored click on either picture.
To donate specifically to the children in Belize click now.
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