belize

Volunteering overseas has been a goal of mine ever since I met a missionary couple from our church, Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Yellowknife, NWT. I applied to the South American Missionary Society (SAMS Canada) and through them was accepted by the Anglican Diocese of Belize.

Belize is a small country south of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, and is bordered by Guatemala to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east. The 270,000 people live both in rural and urban settings. It gained independence from Britain in 1981 and school children proudly sing out “Land of the free by the Carib sea”.

As a nurse, I wanted to practice my skills where they would be of the most use. Through Francis Wilson, volunteer coordinator and Carol Babb, General Manager of Schools, a schedule was developed for me to teach in the four Anglican elementary schools in Belize City. Carol is also on the Board of the Belize Family Life Association (BFLA) and as such gave me an opportunity to volunteer at one of their clinics in Belize City.

At the schools, I covered subjects such as the role of the Nurse as a community helper, hygiene, nutrition, healthy life styles, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AID, and birth control. I also did a refresher course for the teachers in first aid. The children were wonderfully receptive to the information and very excited to have a guest speaker in their classes. These topics are particularly timely as Belize has a high teen pregnancy rate (1:5) and an HIV prevalence rate of 2%. Hypertension, and childhood infectious diseases are leading causes of death in this country.

The majority of schools in Belize are Church/State partnerships with the Government funding the teacher’s salaries and the utility costs of the schools and the Church carries the burden of all other expenses.

All the Anglican schools have a lunch program to offer nutritious, low cost meals. Children who do not have the $1.00 - $2.00 for the program are fed for free. This encourages the children to attend and improves their learning abilities. Because 33% of Belizean’s live in poverty, many families struggle to pay the school fees, and are unable to provide even the basic school supplies.

I received generous donations of money, school and medical supplies. Among those wonderful donors of Yellowknife were my co-workers at Stanton Territorial Health Authority, my friends and church members of Holy Trinity Church, St. John Ambulance, Great Slave Dental Clinic and my MLA Brendan Bell. The supplies were distributed among a number of schools and the cash is targeted to ensure the feeding programs reach as many children as possible.

The BFLA operates non-profit clinics throughout the country targeting reproductive health care services and primary health care. The clinic I was stationed at provides reproductive health services, physician consultation, pre and postnatal care, well baby, pediatrician and obstetrician services. The staff also deal with urgent patients with dehydration, high blood sugar and asthma attacks. Many Belizeans cannot pay the high cost of private care and therefore benefit from this clinic.

All those I came in contact with were welcoming and most appreciative of the nursing services that I provided. Now that my volunteer time is ended, I already have thoughts of returning to Belize as soon as I can.