Project Belize 2013

Last Fall I was asked to lead the Logistics team for Project Belize 2013!  This was a dream come true since I had been secretly hoping to be asked back to the planning team since the day we left Belize last year.  Let me just say that a lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into making this program a success and it was such an honor to work with an amazing Planning Team for such a worthy cause.   If you are unfamiliar with the program, please check out www.pwc.com/projectbelize.  I’m so proud to work for a company that understands the importance of corporate responsibility and dedicates money, time, and resources to important initiatives around the world.    

I was assigned to St Mary’s for the week and had the pleasure of working with the ultimate “dream team” -- Christine  (partner who I used to work with in NY and who I absolutely love and adore) , Brantynn (who just happened to be my Peacework co-lead last year and who is absolutely amazing and hilarious), Ernilda (sweet Belizean co-lead who kept us in order) and 22 PwC interns/professionals who absolutely rocked it in the classrooms.  

Below is a blog post I wrote last year for Project Belize.  I had many of the same experiences this year and I think it sums up my thoughts and feeling well.....

“Over a two week period of time, PwC sent 400 interns, staff, and partners to Belize to teach approximately 1,800 Belizean students, principals, teachers, and parents!  Unfortunately, no words can explain how amazing, rewarding, heartbreaking, sobering, inspiring, and empowering this program would turn out to be.

I attended week 2 of Project Belize and was assigned to the financial literacy track.  I was given the responsibility of helping Sari (a partner from the Boston office) and Brantynn & Nigh (Peacework Volunteers) run the financial literacy program at the Queen’s Square School in Belize City, Belize.  It was estimated that we would have 212 students over the course of the three days.  We were disappointed the first day when only 70ish students showed up but were thrilled as more and more students arrived each day. 

I had to fight back the tears as we pulled up to Queen’s Square for the first time.  From the outside, it looked like a prison.  The view from the inside wasn’t much better.   The classrooms were simple. Old wooden desks/chairs (most of them were broken) and chalk boards filled the room.  Many of the classroom “walls” were chalkboards that didn’t reach the ceiling.  The computer lab consisted of about 15 computers from the 80s and the playground was a basketball court and a Project H landscape. 

The students were absolutely adorable and for the most part well behaved.  The official language of Belize is English but the students usually speak in Creole.  It was difficult at first to understand what they were saying but by the end of the week we were able to communicate and even learned a few Creole sayings.  We loved break time since this gave us an opportunity to play games with the students (basketball and jump rope) and learn about their culture, family life, and hobbies/interests.

The first day and a half was spent teaching the students about basic financial concepts:  income, expenses, budgeting, saving, etc.  By the end of the second day, we had helped students come up with a business plan for a business they would like to start one day.  On the last day we hosted a “business fair” where the students displayed their business plans and some students even brought some items to sell.  Some of the business ideas included:  nail salons, restaurants, logo design, boat making, animal hospital, clothing, kite, and sporting good retail stores, etc.  It was awesome watching their faces light up as they presented their business plans to their peers, parents, and teachers. 

Project Belize was just an incredible experience.  I could go on and on but will spare you the details until I tell you about it in person!  In the end, there is no way to measure the impact we had on the students, parents, teachers, principals, and country over those two weeks.....but I have no doubt that we made an impact.   We made a difference by teaching basic financial concepts, feeding them one meal a day, giving them attention, and by showing love.”

Unfortunately, I lost my cell phone a couple days after Project Belize 2013, so I lost most of my pictures.  Below are a few that I posted on Facebook (social media saves the day). 

PS -- I'm obsessed with DJ Jose (he's the cute little guy in the picture above).  His poster says "Pump up the jam, pump it up".  Brilliant!