All Saints Belize Mission Trips

Since 2005, annual mission trips continue to build life-changing connections between volunteers from throughout the United States and friends in Belize. Volunteers participate in several projects. Our education team visits elementary schools, presenting lessons in a variety of subjects including math, science, religion, language arts, health and hygiene, art, P.E., and music. We deliver health and school supplies, plus items requested by principals. Others visit high school students sponsored by the All Saints Scholarship fund. Those serving on our construction team help local people build school libraries and Catholic churches. Wooden churches are being replaced with concrete block buildings, which also serve as hurricane shelters. We seem to make frequent trips to the hardware store in Punta Gorda in order to repair school drinking fountains and toilets. Medical professionals often assist health promoters in remote clinics. Their tasks include everything from triage duties to making cotton swabs and administering injections. Others assist Socio-Economic Outreach by interviewing local entrepreneurs and crafters to document their stories. We also visit small business owners receiving micro loans through Eccho Dinero.

Our contributions to the lives of our friends in Belize pale in comparison to what they’ve given to us. With them we celebrate life in homes, schools and churches. Like never before we appreciate simple luxuries like plumbing, electricity, access to immediate medical care, automobiles, clean cold water on a hot day and the ability to choose which shoes to wear or what to prepare for dinner. The villagers in southern Belize live happy, fulfilling lives nourished by their own harvest, unwavering faith, and a strong sense of community. The mission experience inspires us to re-examine priorities, slow down and focus on what really matters.

For more information contact Ann Lacker at annlacker@suddenlink.net

Parish-to-Parish Programs

Micro Loans for Home-Based Businesses

The men and women in the villages of Belize rely mainly on their handicrafts to support their families including woodcrafts, basket making, jewelry making, weaving, sewing and other domestic skills. In 2009 All Saints Parish committed to assist these families in becoming more self-sustaining by providing them with $100-$500 loans to begin home-based businesses. In November, 2010 All Saints Parish contributed $10,000 to ECCHO, a revolving loan fund established by Socio-Economic Outreach in Punta Gorda.

 For more information contact Fr. Don Wester at westerd@allsaints-stpeters.org

All Saints Scholarship Fund

In 2008 our missionaries assisting in elementary schools met two bright young women whose families could not afford to send them to high school. In response to this need the All Saints Scholarship Fund was founded. We are currently sponsoring ten students who are attending Julian Cho Technical High School and Corazon High School. The annual cost of sponsoring a high school student is $450. This provides tuition, uniforms, books, and lunches. The scholarships will improve the lives of these students and their families for generations.

For more information contact Anne Schappe at schappan@webster.edu

Bandages for Belize

In 2009 our medical volunteers reported that the hospital in Punta Gorda had limited equipment to deal with even basic health problems. Patients in need of emergency appendectomies and Cesarean Sections are transported by ambulance to Belize City, which is five hours away. We asked for a wish list from local health officials in the Toledo District. The list included everything from I.V. poles to an EKG machine. ALL of these items have been collected and they are sitting in a warehouse as we continue to search for a way to transport them to Belize.

For more information contact Sr. Rose Mercurio at rosessnd@yahoo.com

Community Improvement Fund

As trust and friendship with the people of Toledo District grow, so do their requests for assistance. In 2010 one of our volunteers spent a week repairing toilets in a large elementary school. Wish lists received from principals before our most recent trip included the following requests, “Repair school water supply pipes”, “Repair school drinking fountains and toilets”, and “Complete school library. Please provide a door and roof”. One Sunday we attended Mass in Sunday Wood village, which our team helped to build in 2008. Parishioners asked us to provide “sky blue paint” for their grey, concrete block church so that it will look nice for the upcoming sacrament of Confirmation. We hope to address these and future requests by purchasing and delivering the items to village leaders when we return to Belize.