Provide electricity to 500 students in Belize

Dear Friends!

We continue to give thanks for all of you: the many contributors that continue to make this project possible, and I am pleased to report that I have made two site visits in the last four months! The first featured a Foundation Board meeting on campus, and the second was with a group of volunteers.

At the Board meeting, we focused on our continuing support of the school and plans for the future, which of course includes our solar renewable energy system and other green initiatives. One of our most recent and ambitious green projects is the installation of a 33,000 gallon rainwater-collection-cistern. This cistern is now enabling the school to largely disconnect from very expensive city water (except in the case of long-lasting drought).

In addition, we discussed the need to replace the many older fluorescent light fixtures in all the classrooms and office/computer learning spaces with newer, LED lighting, which will save significant energy and cost. And we re-affirmed our need to install additional capacity in our solar-renewable energy system.

During my volunteer trip, our group of eight helped complete the cistern project by raising the funds needed to install and make functional a commercial-grade UV lighting/filtration system.  We dug trenches and installed piping as part of this effort, while more experienced Belizean colleagues installed the actual filtration system. I am pleased to report that potable water from the Cistern is now flowing to supply the entire school!

My team also began the process of replacing the older fluorenscent lighting, completing about 20% of the total. Moreso, we re-roofed part of the computer learning lab because the previous sheet metal panels were thinner than desirable and had started to erode. We also continued work toward completing the volunteer housing upon which we intend to place our next set of solar panels.

I am happy to report that school is back in session, and despite an up-tick in COVID-19 during May, the school did not need to re-close and was able to conduct a full in-person graduation just last week. Approximately 43 "Standard 6" (eighth-grade) students received diplomas and some of them will move into high-school in the coming year! We are very thankful that things seem to be returning toward a fully normal academic year this fall -- and yet I can't be more thankful than that this solar project continues to help enable the school to keep its doors open.

With much gratitude,

John