Stann Creek Village Leaders Meet to Discuss How Funds Will be Spent to Improve the Communities

Village leaders from the Stann Creek District were in Belize City over the weekend intent on killing two birds with one stone. On one hand, they got down and dirty as they joined the cleanup campaign, and afterwards, they got down to business outlining pressing matters in their villages. Stann Creek West Area Representative, Rodwell Ferguson, says that they are discussing ways to improve sporting facilities in the constituency and address crime issues in the villages

Rodwell Ferguson, Area Representative, Stann Creek West: “Everyday everybody make certain comments and we see it and we follow and everybody is one. We don’t hear about PUP, UDP we don’t hear about no P at all we are here to develop the Stann Creek West constituency. We started a campaign about six months ago to light up all football fields in Stann Creek West, it’s a huge expense but that’s the main goal. Once that is completed then we’re going to take on other initiatives in the constituency.”

Vincent Scott, Chairperson, Santa Cruz Village: “Concerning the crime we also had help from our minister getting some new vehicles in, motorbikes like in Hopkins and I think there was another village I think Hopkins, Seine Bight you know we were lobbying for that.”

Daniel Arzu, Chairperson, Georgetown: “But in terms of the community I actually come from and that I led that community is a quiet community in terms of crime. In fact it’s produced very productive citizen or villagers, people who are constructive and they’re engaged in positive things.”

Each village council is allocated monthly allowances through GOB’s constituency development fund to cover the expense of any projects for the improvement of the community. Pomona Village Chairperson, Melida Ingram, and Stann Creek Valley Chairperson, Kimara Montes explained that the funds they receive go toward food pantries for the elderly and facilitating feeding programs in schools.

Delroy Valerio, Chairman, Silk Grass Village: “We are not laid back. We are not sitting back and let the politicians come in and decide to say alright we will do this, we will do that. We are the ones who take it to them especially in our area with Mr.Ferguson we take our issues to him and then he challenges it at the higher level and so far we are getting there, we are working for the best interest of our people in Stann Creek West.”

Melinda Inram, Chairperson, Pomona Village: “We usually do the clean up campaigns and so on so we do the garbage collections, we clean up the village like I told you get the burial ground clean, get the entire village clean, the entire football field, the school grounds and so on. We also do pantries now and then for the elderly in our village.”

Kimara Montes, Chairperson, Stann Creek Valley: “We use it for sporting activities for the youths to keep them alive and active and also for deaths in our community. You know we support the family also and we do little fundraising to generate in case of something may occur we also help with our school and we also do like the food preparation or little food things for the school children that don’t have a meal or so we try to still keep it up at the school.”