Barefoot Children Ministries is making a difference NOW!

Wildfire Relief Efforts in Southern Belize

In June, the beautiful rainforest landscape we had known since 2005 was dotted with black fields and burnt vegetation. Four hundred farmers across twenty-eight communities in the district experienced devastating losses due to wildfires in May and June. Families were struggling as they worked to reestablish corn, cacao, and cardamom crops. Many elderly farmers were too old to find additional employment.

Three of Barefoot Children Ministries’ board members returned in mid-July to deliver at least one month’s supply of flour, beans, rice, baking powder, oil, sugar, toothpaste, toothbrushes, bath tissue, laundry soap, and bar soap to forty-five families in eleven communities. We purchased and delivered 2,000 jippijappa palm and calabash plants to farmers who depend on these plants for their craft businesses in San Lucas and Mabil Ha. We also took blankets, clothing, food staples, and toiletries to families whose homes burnt down in Blue Creek, Golden Stream, and Trio.

Thanks to all who donated gently used clothing, Manuela and Yuri’s temporary home in Trio was filled with hopeful smiles. Since their homes were lost in the fires, both widowed women have been renting one home with their thirteen children/grandchildren. Before we left, everyone had a couple of new outfits and the two-year-old refused to take off her new dress. We met with Mr. Tut, who agreed to work with the sisters and BCM to provide a house for the families. When we returned to the states, BCM wired funds to pay for all materials needed to build their new home.

We could not have identified and reached so many needy families without the help of Sister Ester, Sister Catarina, Officer Co, and Milton. I’m sure all of us are still smiling as we recall little miracles and funny memories as our van traveled nearly every road in southern Belize.

Due to the overwhelming success of the wildfire fundraiser, BCM was able to provide additional deliveries of food staples for these same families! We even arranged for a van and driver to make it happen. Thanks to the Pallottine Sisters for helping us reach those most in need.

B’ANTIOX! THANK YOU to everyone who supported our Belize Wildfire Relief Efforts!

Unforgettable Travels to the “Forgotten District” of Belize in January, March, and June 2024

BCM’s teaching volunteers reached ten schools in 2024, where we shared lessons, and delivered health care bags, school supplies, and flip flops to 865 students attending primary schools in San Benito Poite, Santa Teresa, San Lucas, Corazon Creek, Otoxha, Dolores, Machakil Ha, Aguacate, Blue Creek, and San Marcos. Children especially enjoyed skee ball math games and responding to pen pal letters written by students in schools across Missouri.

Sister Rose is quite the party planner! BCM’s Elderly Enrichment Program held birthday celebrations in eight communities, where hundreds of participants played games, decorated cookies, made crafts, and selected gently used eyeglasses.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Blue Creek is finished thanks to hardworking community members and January’s construction crew. The solar-powered submersible water pump has been installed at St. Mark’s School in Otoxha, and Blue Creek School now has Sawyer water filters on their faucets. The principal reported that he felt much better after drinking the filtered, clean water for just a couple of days! In March, we purchased materials to repair a bat-infested school building in Dolores, and protect it against future infestation, and we painted the school in Corazon Creek. With only two handypersons signed up for June’s trip, we installed whiteboards and doorknobs, and then tackled a list of school repairs in Aguacate.

January’s team was happy to chat with “our” sixteen high school scholarship students from rural villages, who traveled by bus to attend a lovely breakfast reception in Punta Gorda. Some had to catch buses as early as 3:30 AM. We enjoyed hearing about their favorite (and least favorite) subjects and looking over their grade reports. Most of us agreed that the highlight of June’s trip was visiting three graduates sponsored by the scholarship program. We are immensely proud of Rigoberta, Corazon High School’s Salutatorian, Carmelita, who graduated fourth in the class, and Martha who also received high marks through her four years in high school. All of the girls put on their graduation caps and gowns, and one even performed the graduation song for the team!

Our small business micro loan program provided start-up funds for several woodcarvers, weavers, basket makers and two chicken farms. When their loans are repaid, the funds will be available to others who need a little help launching their businesses.

Three unstoppable priests joined our Belize trips this year, and we were able to celebrate Mass in six churches that we helped to build over the past several years. Between the three of them, Fr. Don, Fr. Joe, and Fr. Bob celebrated Mass twenty-two times! We were honored to be invited to the dedication celebration at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Blue Creek, as well as St. Mary’s Church in Hicatee. Both buildings were recently completed with the help of community members, our volunteers, and the Community Improvement Fund.

We purchased 246 established soursop, kenip, and star fruit trees from Xucaneb Nursery in San Pedro Columbia and delivered them to 160 families in Santa Teresa and San Benito Poite.

During each visit we felt honored to share meals with friends, old and new. Our rookie volunteers fell in love with Belize. Many thanks to local and international volunteers, donors, and partners for supporting our programs! B’ANTIOX!

The Road to a friends house is never too long… (Our Visits to Belize in January and June, 2023)

What a blessing and a privilege to have traveled to Belize with thirty-one dedicated, easy-going volunteers in 2023. In January, our teaching volunteers tolerated bumpy, muddy roads for two and a half hours each way to reach the furthest of the four schools in which we volunteered. We know where to locate the future foosball champions of Belize after helping students build and test six tables! In contrast, June’s “ride to work” each day was less than an hour to the furthest school. This afforded us plenty of time to pick up refreshments and cool off in the swimming hole behind the lodge. Students in Otoxha, Dolores, Machakil Ha, Aguacate, Blue Creek, and Conejo responded to Pen Pal letters from All Saints students, and they seemed to like our engaging STEM, math, language arts, religion, science, fitness, and art activities. Thanks to everyone who contributed financially or donated school supplies, hygiene items, and flip flops for 505 students in 2023!

January’s larger team of twenty provided the flexibility to reach more people. We met with several widows assisted by the Binny Fund, most of whom had prepared delicious caldo and tortillas. We were able to have breakfast with fifteen hard-working high school students sponsored by Barefoot Children Ministries. Many caught a bus as early as 4:00am to reach us at 8:30! Through our partnership with Ya’axche Conservation Trust, we delivered 156 established fruit tree seedlings to families in Aguacate. Fr. Bob was able to offer a total of nine Masses in five communities, which is a rarity since the villages are hard to reach due to horrible road conditions. In June we met with two families receiving BCM’s assistance with medical care for their children.

Our construction crew also had a productive year. Families in Hicatee had been preparing and selling chicken dinners for seven years to secure materials for their new church building. It had been a struggle. Barefoot Children Ministries purchased roofing material, louvered windows, and doors. In January, our crew worked alongside community members throughout the week, and we are counting the days until we can attend Mass there. Children in Machakil Ha couldn’t wait to show us how to use the community’s first flush toilets, for which BCM purchased all materials. Thanks to the PTA members for working together to build the toilet facility before our arrival! While passing through Blue Creek one day, we saw men and women building concrete block walls on a site which for years had been marked with a banner marking it as the “Future Home of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church”. We stopped to introduce ourselves and took extensive notes as church members explained their need to complete the new, larger, structurally sound building. Apparently, they had been fundraising and building, little by little, for a few years. By the end of our January visit we had arranged to help them build the church when we returned in June, and we did. When we left Belize in June, the church in Blue Creek had a new, completely termite-proof sheet metal roof. We spent a day checking past construction projects to determine possible repairs or replacement parts, but we were thrilled to discover that all playgrounds and water systems were in working order.

Yes, it’s satisfying to have checked off quite a few boxes on the “to do” list. But the greater reward is found in visiting long-time friends, including many former primary school students who now have families of their own. And I just cannot say enough about our incredible volunteers who set aside the time and effort to support and encourage one another as well as the people we serve. Thanks to all who support Barefoot Children Ministries by praying, donating, and volunteering. Thanks most of all to our partners in Belize, all principals, teachers, church leaders, program administrators and especially families who invite us into their homes to share delicious traditional meals. We are so blessed and lucky!

Returning to Our Favorite Little Corner of the World After Two Long Years… (Our visits to Belize in March and June, 2022)

Our support for families in Belize continued throughout the pandemic, and after two long years Barefoot Children Ministries was able to return to Belize in March and June. With each trip our impact expands as we celebrate life and share clean water with a new generation of healthier families inside schools and churches that we built alongside community members.

In March of this year, four board members flew to Belize to evaluate current needs and to determine best practices and projects for future travels. We visited eleven communities in which Barefoot Children Ministries has volunteered. We delivered over 650 tree seedlings to families in Corazon Creek, Otoxha, Dolores, and Machakil Ha, and we provided sports equipment, sanitation supplies, hand soap, and masks for the eight schools we visit annually. We met with eighteen widows assisted through the Binny Fund. We repaired the school water pump in Blue Creek, checked the condition of several past construction projects, and began planning future projects. Although, due to covid, we had not planned to meet with high school students sponsored by our scholarship fund, we were pleased to cross paths with a few current students and several graduates. Best of all, we were reunited with many long-time friends and found all of them to be healthy! Community leaders, principals, and students were anxious to hear about our plans for future visits.

In June, we returned to Belize with a team of eleven volunteers. During that week, we replaced parts on San Lucas’ solar-powered water purification system, which we built in 2019, and helped the community build a new school playground. Our teaching volunteers provided phonics, comprehension, and math activities to bring students in San Lucas and Corazon Creek up to speed following two years of distance learning. We delivered school supplies, rosaries, hygiene care bags and flip flops to the two primary schools and brought supplies for seventeen students sponsored by our high school scholarship fund. Fr. Joe said Mass in Dolores, Corazon Creek, and San Lucas, and through our partnership with Ya’axche Conservation Trust we distributed 236 fruit tree seedlings to families in Blue Creek and San Lucas. At the end of the week, we attended Machakil Ha Solar Partnership’s inauguration of solar power in the village. We are grateful that Plenty Belize invited us to be part of this project, for which BCM provided piping, a water tank, and tank stand to ensure that the community has water even during the dry season. The highlight of the day was meeting three Indigenous women, trained as solar engineers, who install and maintain solar power in rural communities! It turned out to be quite a celebration with government officials and news reporters traveling the new road to the village. (We’ll miss the horseback riding.) THANK YOU to our donors, volunteers who work with us in the US, those who set aside the comforts of home to join us in Belize, our partners in Belize, and our friends in Belize who welcome us into their communities, prepare delicious meals, and even let us hold their babies! We are so very blessed!

Maintaining Support Through The Covid-19 Pandemic

Thanks to our generous donors and established relationships with local partners in Belize, Barefoot Children Ministries continues to make a difference! Since Belize closed its borders in March of 2020, we have purchased handwashing and sanitation supplies for forty elementary school classrooms. Through our partnership with Ya’axch’e Conservation Nursery, we continue to provide fruit trees for families in several communities. We deliver financial assistance for thirteen widowed mothers, and to date we have raised nearly eight thousand dollars to support a food pantry operated by the Pallottine Missionary Sisters near Punta Gorda town! We are providing school fees, uniforms, textbooks, and supplies for fifteen high school students, most of whom pick up packets of assignments to complete at home. We are supporting Plenty International’s efforts to install a solar-powered water pumping system in the village of Machakil Ha, with construction to begin next month. When it is safe for us to return to Belize, we hope to fulfill another community’s request for us to train operators and install a water purification system developed by New Life International. BANTIOX (Thank you) to all who offer support and prayers for our brothers and sisters in Belize!

Looking back at the year 2020…

On March 13th I paused on a dirt path to take this photo, just before our team of volunteers left the beautiful village of Machakil Ha in southern Belize. Notice the baby carrying, hand holding, and running to catch up, which pretty much sums up how we all felt about parting ways. Who could have predicted that daily life around the world would change drastically in just few days due to Covid-19 concerns and social distancing? A full year has passed since we last visited our dear friends living in Belize. Although Belize closed its borders shortly after we returned from our last trip, we were able to get there in both January and March of 2020. In January, twenty volunteers shared educational activities with students in Blue Creek, San Lucas, and Otoxha, and replaced the wooden school in Otoxha with a new concrete structure. We met with several widows assisted through the Binny Fund, held a breakfast reception with fifteen students sponsored through the Scholarship Fund, and visited many close friends. We delivered fruit tree seedlings though our partnership with Ya’axch’e Nursery, held women’s health workshops, provided enrichment activities for the elderly, and delivered wish list items to schools in all three communities. The highlight of our trip was a water festival in San Lucas to celebrate the water purification system which we finished ahead of schedule in 2019!

In March, our much smaller crew of eight worked with community members to paint the church in Otoxha before traveling as far as Dolores and Machakil Ha, where we provided educational activities in both schools and delivered fruit tree seedlings to all families. In Machakil Ha, we set up a school library and helped students plant a large garden with seeds from HOPE Seeds Intl. We are grateful to the community of Machakil Ha for providing so many delicious meals. Thanks to Mr. Bo for letting us live in his family’s home during our visit. The bonfire singalong is becoming a favorite tradition for all of us! I suspect that the horseback ride is a thing of the past now that the road is completed.

Thanks to everyone who supports Barefoot Children Ministries with providing community improvements, education materials, clean water solutions, high school scholarships, assistance for widows and orphans, women’s health workshops, medical assistance for children, elderly enrichment, and conservation programs. We treasure time spent with old and new friends in Belize, and we always return with much more than we could ever give. Our friends in Belize have had a tremendous impact on our lives and our priorities and we all feel blessed to know them and love them. Please join us in praying that these communities remain safe and healthy.

June 2019 Updates
Wow! What a year we’ve had already! In January, March and June a total of fifty-eight volunteers have traveled with Barefoot Children Ministries to Belize. Our impact is expanding thanks to our growing network of volunteers and non-profit organizations in the US and in Belize!Our construction teams painted the school in Machakil Ha, provided a school sign for the school in Dolores, and built a first-ever playground in Corazon Creek. Our volunteers became a little teary-eyed at the sight of children racing for the new slide and actually jumping for joy! In March and June, the community of San Lucas helped with the installation of a 2,000-gallon capacity, river-sourced, solar-powered water purification system. Thanks to New Life International and Solar Trek for working with us to provide an entire village with safe, clean water!

Primary school principals were pleased with art, health, language arts, math, music, P.E., religion, science, and STEM activities presented by our teaching volunteers. Every student received school supplies and hygiene care bags, thanks to donors in the US.
Arnaldo, one of “our” high school scholarship recipients, graduated from Corazon Creek Technical High School. With the addition of four new students entering first form, we will sponsor a total fifteen students next year. Some will attend Julian Cho Technical High School.
Volunteers with medical experience held discussions in schools and met with women in eight villages to discuss family health, first aid, and women’s health issues. They provided workshops teaching the ladies how to sew washable, reusable pads. Women who made them with us last year reported that the pads were very useful and they could hardly wait to make more. We were able to deliver much-needed over-the-counter medication to several rural health posts! The founders of the Binny Fund were able to meet with several widows. We documented how past assistance has been helpful and evaluated their future needs. We are currently assisting ten women in six villages.

Through our partnership with Ya’axche Institute for Conservation Education’s Nursery in Belize, we provided 990 established fruit tree seedlings to families in eight villages! Our goal is to improve nutrition, protect the environment, and possibly generate income for families. During our visit last week, we were pleased to see that the trees delivered in January were planted and thriving! Our education team supported the project with botany and nutrition lessons prior to the delivery of the seedlings.

Our Honoring Elders Program was such a hit in Punta Gorda that we decided to include it in all of our village visits. We provided an afternoon of socialization and recreation for elders living in nine communities. Elders were invited to join us for a meal, select gently-used reading glasses, make crafts and play games. Due to generous donations, hard-working volunteers, and memorable meals shared with friends in the beautiful villages of southern Belize, Barefoot Children Ministries continues to build friendships and change lives across 2600 miles. We are truly blessed. B’antiox!

December 2018 Updates                                                                                                                                 Barefoot Children Ministries is excited to announce our partnership with Ya’axche Institute For Conservation Education’s Nursery in Belize. In January, we will begin to provide families with established fruit tree seedlings in an effort to protect the environment, improve nutrition, and possibly generate income! Our goal is to establish the program in eight communities in 2019 and continue to provide a variety of seedlings during annual visits. Our education team will distribute the seedlings and support the project with nutrition, botany and finance lessons. We can’t wait to watch this program GROW! In September, our HUGE shipment to Belize reached its final destination! 192 boxes filled with textbooks and school library books were distributed to schools in southern Belize! Students from several schools attended Literacy Day at the public library in Punta Gorda and every student selected a book to take home. The shipment also included supplies for the hospital in Punta Gorda, hymnals for the Pallottine Sisters, Easter candles and other items for over thirty village churches within the boundaries of St. Peter Claver Parish. Thanks to all of the volunteers who donated books, packed boxes, prepared pallets for shipping, and arranged transportation resources.

UPCOMING EVENTS

ANNOUNCEMENTS