On Thursday June 16th, Honorable Manuel Heredia Jr., Minister of Tourism, Culture and Civil Aviation presented two donations to two very deserving projects in San Pedro. The first was a check in the amount of $10,000 which was presented to the Marco Gonzalez Committee. This donation was accepted by Ms. Jan Brown, Founder and chairperson of the board of the Marco Gonzalez Maya Site Ambergris Caye Ltd.
In a brief interview with The San Pedro Sun, Brown commented,
“We are so thrilled that this donation has come through. These funds will go towards the building of Phase One of the project which is the permanent boardwalk. I am just very grateful for the support from the minister.”
Brown further stated that the funds being secured by the Minister serves to provide a gateway to other international organizations that would be able to now contribute to this very worthy non-profit endeavor.
In speaking about his $10,000 donation, Hon. Manuel Heredia stated, “This is for the Marco Gonzalez Archeological Site to do a boardwalk where you can go from the main road to the site without getting hurt. The boardwalk will also allow access to the site in the rainy season. To me archeological sites are extremely important and if we look today, even across other Central American countries, culture is something that we want to maintain. The archeological sites are something that symbolizes the Maya culture through generations.” The donation comes as a second part of an initial $20,000 pledged by the Minister. The first was in the same amount and came from the Ministry of Culture and NICH (National Institute of Culture and History). This check which was donated came directly from the BTB (Belize Tourism Board).
The Minister then travelled to the San Pedro PolyClinic II where he donated hygiene products. Present to accept the donation were Administrator, Mr. Owen Vellos along with nurses and doctors on staff.
The products came from the Kimberly Clark Line and were worth approximately $3,500. In Issue 45, Vol. 20 The San Pedro Sun reported that Madisco had launched a new line of Kimberly Clark products and among the guests present for the launch was Hon. Mr. Heredia, who was also a guest speaker for the event. During the launch, Madisco and Kimberly Clark representatives presented Hon. Manuel Heredia with over $3,000 worth of Kimberly Clark Products to be used as he sees fit. Mr. Heredia told The Sun,
“I had to choose where to give the donations of the products and I believe that I had to give it to some institution that would make good use of that, and to me the best institution over here is the PolyClinic. I believe they really need a lot of assistance. If you notice here in San Pedro everything is a lot more expensive than everywhere else and this PolyClinic, even though it is run by the government, depends a lot on contributions from the patients and donors to maintain it in a way that can give the best service that we can afford.”
The donation included hand sanitizers, hand sanitizer dispensers, paper dispensers among other products.
