Provide electricity to 500 students in Belize

Greetings this New Year!

I apologize for not posting a report sooner, but we have been very very busy (see photos) at Holy Cross Anglican Public K-8 School! As I had mentioned last time, I was planning on attending the ground-breaking ceremony for the new multipurpose building. This occurred in December and I am grateful to have been able to be there! The groundbreaking was an important ceremonial step forward for the school as well as for the community. Numerous people attended including officials from the town of San Pedro and government officials from the Ministry of Education. Attendees also included all of our Board members, numerous donors, the school principal and faculty, plus quite a number of students. In the background of the 3rd photo attached is our 40,000 gallon rainwater collection cistern, which will also serve as the back one-quarter foundation for the new community center.

The new community center is planned as a 100 x 40 ft building, with space enough to hold graduations and other large events. It will also include several new classrooms, offices, and areas that can be arranged as desired.  As well, it is designed to be a gathering place for the community and community services needed by the growing population of San Mateo. While the income levels and quality of life have improved substantially over the years, there is still a lack of sanitary sewage and reliably potable water; thus, a place where advocacy groups can gather is critical to the future of the community. This may include a job center, vocational classes, counseling, etc. Since it is being built 8-feet above grade, it will provide a high-quality shelter for flood waters that often invade this fragile near-sea-level community.

We fully anticipate that the new community center will need solar renewable energy to, as much as possible, avoid very expensive grid-based power. The building will be oriented N/S, so the > 40 feet of usable roof space (side-to-side) at 100 feet long will be an ideal setting for solar angled toward both the east and west (on either roof side).

In about 6 weeks, I will be making another site visit with a team of volunteers. At that time, our plan is to begin roof construction. With additional volunteer groups to come in the April/May/June time-frame, our overall hope is to have the roof completely covering the new building in time for 8th grade graduation in late June this year (2024!).

Thus, our need for your very kind and committed donations continues as you work with us to make the dreams of this school and community become reality.

And to see our current, real-time SRE production, please feel free to visit these egauges URLs:

http://egauge31746.egaug.es/60C7D/classic.html

http://egauge31747.egaug.es/57A4C/

Have a wonderful spring and I look forward to my next report, when I will summarize the results of my next site visit as well as more firm plans for the purchase of our next set of solar panels.

Sincerely,

John