{"id":7831,"date":"2015-07-10T20:10:52","date_gmt":"2015-07-11T00:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=7831"},"modified":"2015-07-11T21:23:38","modified_gmt":"2015-07-12T01:23:38","slug":"united-methodist-give-the-poor-in-belize-a-head-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=7831","title":{"rendered":"United Methodists Give the Poor in Belize a Head Start"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What if you only had an Eighth Grade education?\u00a0 You didn&#8217;t know anything about science or math, your reading lagged behind, and you didn&#8217;t speak any English?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/myhandinhand.org\/immersion-trips\/belize\/\" target=\"_blank\">Belize<\/a><\/span>, a country on the northeastern coast of Central America, 55% of the youth drop out of school before reaching High School.\u00a0 The problem isn&#8217;t desire or the ability to learn; it&#8217;s the ability to pay!\u00a0 The country&#8217;s commitment to education shrunk as the population grew.\u00a0 The result was a lack of High Schools- and a lack of a secondary school education.\u00a0 This has helped to create some ugly statistics for the people of Belize:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><div class='et-box et-shadow'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class='et-box-content'><\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: circle;\">\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">A poverty rate at 30%- 40% of the population. The average Belizean lives on just over $300 US per year.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Most of the poor people in Belize are dependent on the agriculture and fishing sector for their livelihood. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #003300;\">In Belize City, the poor depend primarily on construction, cutting yards, and cleaning drains, just to name a few. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000080;\">The poor people of this country display a high level of labor commitment in terms of the number of hours they work\u2013but for less than $2 per day.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">High levels of unemployment, especially in single-parent families with mothers as the sole provider, exacerbate the problem. <\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: circle;\">\n<li><span style=\"color: #003300;\">Lack of food, medical care, decent housing and educational opportunities all add to the challenge.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Belize has the second-highest rate of infection for HIV\/AIDS in the Caribbean.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>(Source: <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/myhandinhand.org\/immersion-trips\/belize\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/myhandinhand.org\/immersion-trips\/belize<\/a><\/span>\/)<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Great&#8230; But What&#8217;s that got to Do with Us?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Jesus said,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew+25%3A31-46&amp;version=TLB\" target=\"_blank\">Matthew 25:35-36<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,\u00a0 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.&#8217;\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0 NIV<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What good would our church be if we saw suffering anywhere in the world and didn&#8217;t do anything about it?<\/p>\n<p>The United Methodist Church acts to fight poverty and suffering.\u00a0 Though our &#8220;Shared Ministry&#8221; giving, the United Methodist Church is able to support programs that alleviate real-world problems.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Help Jesus&#8230;<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.umcmission.org\/learn-about-us\/news-and-stories\/2015\/june\/0618giftsimpactstudents\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-7893\" src=\"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/BelmopanMethodistHighSchool600-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"BelmopanMethodistHighSchool600\" width=\"180\" height=\"135\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/BelmopanMethodistHighSchool600-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/BelmopanMethodistHighSchool600.jpg 599w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a>The United Methodist Church has taken on the project of building a High School in the city of Belopan, which is the capitol of Belize.\u00a0 When construction is completed next year, Belmopan Methodist <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.umcmission.org\/Give-to-Mission\/Search-for-Projects\/Projects\/3021922\" target=\"_blank\">High School<\/a><\/span> will provide quality education to over 300 students.\u00a0 Over 300 lives will be changed, because United Methodists acted!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the testimony of one of those changed lives&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class='et-box et-download'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class='et-box-content'><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> Nelson Amador, a student of Belmopan Methodist High School, is one example of the many students impacted by UMC #Giving Tuesday donations: <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cI was raised in an economically poor family, but perhaps rich in desires for educational development. My parents came to Belize from Guatemala looking for better opportunities and my mom desired for us [the family] to learn English. They got nationalized as Belizeans and worked on our education. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">When I finished primary school in 2009, even though I wanted to, I couldn\u2019t make it to high school because my parents could not afford it. But, on my last job, I met Mrs. Rose Binfield who promised to sponsor my education. Later, I was accepted at the Belmopan Methodist High School. I am so thankful to God for this school and for everyone that has made this opportunity possible for me.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.umcmission.org\/learn-about-us\/news-and-stories\/2015\/june\/0618giftsimpactstudents#sthash.g9CWUwz7.dpuf\" target=\"_blank\">Click Here <\/a><\/span>to learn more&#8230;<\/span><\/div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #003300;\">+\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>For more information on what are Shared Ministry dollars are currently doing, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.umcmission.org\/Find-Resources\/Newsletters\/connectNmission\/2015\/cNm-July08\" target=\"_blank\">Click Here<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What if you only had an Eighth Grade education?\u00a0 You didn&#8217;t know anything about science or math, your reading lagged behind, and you didn&#8217;t speak any English? In Belize, a country on the northeastern coast of Central America, 55% of the youth drop out of school before reaching High School.\u00a0 The problem isn&#8217;t desire or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,57,157],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eventreminder","category-mission-global","category-umc-shared-ministries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7831"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7904,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7831\/revisions\/7904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}