Nine year-old Tyrek habitually stares blankly into space in class. Even when the teacher calls his name, he takes a few minutes to respond. Tyrek had witnessed the killing of his older brother three months ago, in front of his house. Two weeks ago, his cousin was shot on his bike riding to the store. Now he is withdrawn from his classmates, refuses to go outside to play during breaks, and is ir...

September signals celebration in Belize, but for parents and their children September also means back to school, and with every new uniform, bag, and school supply come the associated fees. Many actors in the private and public sector do their part to help ease the burden of cost on parents through scholarships, but few have as comprehensive a program as RESTORE Belize’s I AM BELIZE Scholarship...

"Belize is a country of peace and tranquility, where citizens live in harmony with the natural environment and enjoy a high quality of life.” That is the country’s goal as outlined in the Horizon 2030 National Development Framework, and a critical aspect of peacebuilding is conflict mediation. Belize recognizes this, doubling down on its efforts to increase its capacity to cope with conflict th...

“Birth to 8 – Children Must Play” was this year’s theme for Child Stimulation Month, but among the child-centered activities and events, Belize was rocked by a spike in violence affecting women and children, signaling an appalling change in crime affecting urban Belize City. There was a call on all sectors to respond, and RESTORE Belize, among its other long-term peace-building initiatives, mob...

“Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace” – Confucius RESTORE Belize is proud to announce that our three 4th form I AM BELIZE Scholarship students have completed their high school degrees and are moving forward into futures filled with the promise of success. Louise Wagner, age 17, Dion Cacho, age 16, and Shemar Rowland, age 18, sat down with us for an interview o...

RESTORE Belize, as a part of its EWS Programme, closed off its Education Month activities with the fourth annual Readathon Competition and Award Ceremony. In February of 2018 the Ministry of Education launched literacy as a national priority, and an essay component for children from Std. 2 and 3 was included in the competition to align with that inititative. The competition is a collaborative e...

May 18th is International Teacher’s Day – a day to celebrate those at the heart of the educational system. This year the Ministry of Education pulled out all the stops in organizing a full day of activities at the newly re-opened Civic Center in Belize City. The day kicked off with opening ceremonies and items from Praise Band and St. Ignatius R.C School. In a nod to music week, teachers were t...

RESTORE Belize ended 2017 on a strong note after successfully completing a series of Round Table Discussions, held in partnership with UNICEF, on lessons learned from the Metamorphosis Programme. Many children in Belize live in neighborhoods where gang culture is prevalent. Exposure to armed violence affects children’s emotional and psychological wellbeing as well as their academic performance....

Anyone who has been to family court can relate to the time, expense, and frustration that accompany long waiting periods in a drawn-out trial. To mitigate these difficulties, court-appointed family mediation has been recognized as a convenient, timely, and amicable alternative that helps to de-clog the system and ensure that resources are allocated prudently. This need is especially pressing ou...

The Computer Aided Learning Software, or CALS for short, is a tool to complement traditional instruction in literacy and numeracy while attempting to bridge the digital gap for primary school children. Last week we visited one of the 14 CALS sites currently receiving support from RESTORE Belize and were impressed by the fast gains in core reading skills of remedial English speakers. The facilit...

RESTORE Belize congratulates the 36 I AM Belize scholarship students honored at last week's 2017 scholarship award ceremony. Donor partners, parents, and staff filled up the Coastal Zone Training Room to recognize the 15 new students and 21 returning students who are fully funded under this programme. Thanks to funding from our donor partners Belize Natural Energy Charitable Trust (BNECT), BEL,...

Spectators came out in droves on September 16th to experience Belize’s steel bands beat out lively renditions of the hits- both old and new. The concert played on well into the night peaking past midnight with Pandemonium. The Pandemonium Steel Band is coordinated and managed through a partnership between RESTORE Belize and NICH with funding from UNICEF as a tool for social outreach to socially...

September 8th is International Literacy Day, and the theme for 2017 is “Literacy in a Digital World.” Digital technologies can be empowering for those who have access to them and marginalizing for those who do not. To address this gap and help both children and adults access educational technologies to build basic literacy skills, RESTORE Belize facilitates the Computer Assisted Learning Progra...

RESTORE Belize expresses its sincerest gratitude to Dr. Corinth Morter-Lewis for donating 400 copies of her books, Moments in Time Volumes 1 and 2, to the I AM BELIZE Scholarship programme. All sales from these books will be contributed directly to the Adopt a Student Fund, to which Dr. Morter-Lewis has donated in the past. In Belize, the name Corinth Morter-Lewis is well-known and highly regar...

September is recognized as Literacy Month, and in the spirit of literacy, RESTORE Belize would like to congratulate the 55+ primary school teachers who tested and sharpened their skills in August through the 5 day Balanced Literacy workshop. The teachers hail from 5 Belize City primary schools currently testing the RESTORE Belize Early Warning System for At-risk Primary School Children project....

RESTORE Belize is proud to announce that four more students have added their names to the growing list of successful graduates sponsored by the I AM BELIZE Scholarship Programme. At the end of the 2016-2017 school year, Shakir Castillo of Sadie Vernon, Austin Neal of Wesley College, Maleek Wright of Gwen Lizarraga High School, and Amal Jones of ACC dressed in their graduation best and marched i...

At RESTORE Belize we believe that every child can learn, even though teaching methods may need to be varied. We thank Belize Natural Energy Charitable Trust (BNECT) and Belize Protected Areas Conservation Trust (PACT) for their support and investment in the youth, Belize's future, through the RESTORE Belize Scholarship Programme. We have some graduates this year. Congrats to: George McKenzie (M...

RESTORE Belize and Its team of Mediation Coordinators conducted its 9th cohort of Conflict Mediation Training this past week. The 40 hr course included participants from the Belize Red Cross, Community Policing, Community Rehabilitation department and Social workers from varying districts within Belize. This activity filled and skill building week was facilitated by a total of 5 trainers traine...

RESTORE Belize facilitated their eleventh cohort of Conflict Mediation Training in December of 2014. It was a forty hours training course that started December 1st and ended December 5th at ITVET in Belize City. The training provides communities with essential skills such as conflict de-escalation, respectful communication, and creative problem solving skills. Mrs. Consuelo Godfrey was a facili...

The “I AM BELIZE” Scholarship Programme was established in October of 2010 with the goal of seeking to empower people and communities to enable them to become “conscious architects of their own future”. The objective is to provide students with a full scholarship which includes: tuition, uniforms and books for their four years of high school. So, at the start of the new academic school year 201...

Need: The Government of Belize (GOB), youth service providers and the general public are greatly concerned with the increasing levels of violence and violent crime in our society. In February 2012, the GOB sent out a request to the international community for assistance in building a national cadre of conflict mediators to support a more peaceful society by using proven methodologies to resolve...

With its inception in 2013, it pleases us to know that at the end of 2014, our Computer Assisted Learning Programme has a little over one hundred students utilizing the software at our various sites. These sites include: NaRCIE (National Resource Center for Inclusive Education), Eglah’s Training Center for Women and Families, Youth Hostel, UBAD Educational Foundation: (UEF), and St. Martin De P...

The implementation team consists of: a consultant hired to work on the implementation plan, MoUs, assist with site selection, etc. a programme officer at RESTORE Belize responsible for ensuring that all responsibilities are fulfilled. two further members of RESTORE comprising the site selection team two representatives of the Ministry of Education/ Belize Literacy Unit Site Selection Requests f...

The Conflict Mediators' Forum took place at the Biltmore Hotel on Friday September 27. This gathering provided mediators from different vocations the opportunity to share experiences using mediation techniques. This forum was different from usual meetings because of the encouraged level of interaction. Participants were encouraged to “Bring it up so we can talk about it, get to the truth and im...

On Thursday, December 12, 2013 at the ITVET Compound in Belize City, The Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan) handed over 60 ASUS VivoTab RT tablet computers, donated by the ASUS Foundation of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to RESTORE Belize to be used to further education goals in Belize. This gift demonstrates the continued commitment of the Embassy of China (Taiwan) to improving educati...

In association with the H.E.L.P (Health! Elevating Living Practices) project; the “I am Belize Scholarship Program held it four part series on “parenting” where Fifteen parents were invited to share their views about parenting in a modern Belizean society. The H.E.L.P project is a newly formed association attached to the GoJoven program geared towards forging discussions among parents and their...

Julie Miguel is the driving force behind Water Walkers, a boys and girls club founded approximately a year ago. Though Julie interacted on a daily basis with most of the members of Water Walkers before the club was formed, that relationship was a negative one with children, ringing doorbells, turning over garbage and generally being nuisances at her place of work on Albert Street. After speakin...

International friends of Belize stopped by at RESTORE Belize to make a donation of clothes. Shona and Siera Hodgson, a mother and daughter team from Renton, Central Scotland, collected six suitcases of clothes from friends and family which they brought to Belize on their holiday. With stops and donations in Dangriga, the Liberty Children’s Home and RESTORE Belize, the Hodgsons show that “tiny c...

RESTORE Belize and Literacy Without Borders are pleased to announce that training on the Academy of Reading and the Academy of Math has occurred in Belize. In December 2012, the Republic of China (Taiwan) donated a gift valued at consisting of 100 computers and a National Master License and four site licenses for computer-based literacy and numeracy software in Belize, . This means that four si...

This year RESTORE Belize decided to reach out to the elderly. It was a good opportunity to engage this group of society that we do not always place primary focus on. We interact with Sandra Augustus better known as “Aunt Sandra” in other capacities but knowing that she has been operating Dreamlight Ministry for the past four years (out of her own pocket) we thought it was better to operate thro...

Nowhere to fly is a production that involves (dance, theatre, etc) that discusses the effects of gang involvement on our young population. It aims to spark a national dialogue (first starting in Belize City) in a constructive debate about gangs in the face of increasing efforts to suppress gang activity with police presence through GSU and Precinct Policing. Two of five scheduled performances h...

RESTORE Belize and the National Institute of Culture and History have partnered to teach members of the Belize City community how to play the steel pan. A gift of 25 such instruments were donated to NICH by UNICEF who also supports the weekly logistics of holding the classes. Saturday June 7 has been called Pan Saturday and will feature the advanced class of this group of students. The event wi...

On December 18th and 19th Pandemonium along with Panerrifix (Belmopan Steel Band) presented ‘Carol of the Pans’. It was panerrific as it was pure pandemonium. Pandemonium, the newcomers to the steel pan scene is a group of vivacious set of youngsters. In 2013, NICH, along with partner organizations, RESTORE Belize, and UNICEF, embarked on a project to use Steel Pan as a tool for social outreach...

RESTORE Belize and several other organisations partnered with Precinct 1 for a successful Christmas party on Christmas Eve 2013. In March this year, the Belize Police Department divided Belize City into four Precincts with each being responsible for a specific area. Precinct 1 located on Euphrates street responds to the area starting at the foot of the Belcan bridge leading up Central American ...

Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, the steel pan is making global strides in appeal. The hope is that, similar to its birthplace, steelpan can help change some lives in the urban areas of Belize. Panerrifix Steel Band. After consultation in a two day workshop with various stakeholders, UNICEF made a donation of 25 steelpan instruments to the National Institute of Culture and History with the ...

UNICEF is supporting steelpan lessons to youths in Southside Belize through a donation of instruments and financial support for weekly classes coordinated by NICH and RESTORE Belize. Saturday June 7 marked a milestone where the advanced class of those lessons held their first performance at their practice space located at the corner of Bishop Street and East Canal. This initiative was an effort...

Symposium to End Violence Against Children (Information gathered from a press release by the Special Envoy) The Special Envoy for Women and Children Mrs. Kim Simplis Barrow, in collaboration with the Ministry of Human Development, Social Transformation and Poverty Alleviation, the National Committee for Families and Children, Restore Belize, the European Union and UNICEF hosted a symposium to b...

American Psychologist Abraham Maslow created the “Hierarchy of Needs” and at its based is the physiological need. This includes food, water, sleep, and warmth. Maslow believed that people are motivated to fulfill basic needs before advanced needs. So last year, besides the other great work done, we were also fulfilling the need of warmth with our TOMS Shoes Distribution Programme. Through this ...

In highlighting an observed reduced crime rate, Police Commissioner Allen Whylie gave much credit to Belize’s move towards Precinct Policing. Developing a relationship between police and the community they serve is a primary focus of the Youth and Police Initiative or YPI. One such five day programme took place from Monday, August 19 to Friday 23. Held at mile 21 on the George Price Highway, it...