Project in Belize becomes life-changing adventure

Students in Belize: From left to right in back row are Professor Dick Reddy, Shannon Finnegan, Professor Ellie Reddy, Erica Washburn, His Excellency Sir Colville Young (Governor General of Belize), Sara Briggs, Keriann Lons, and Laura Ellis. Left to right in front row  are Laura Green, Sarah Clayton, Jessica Brocki, and Desiree Allen.

Belize, a country in Central America struggling with few educational resources and a multitude of social ills, isn’t the first spring break destination of most college students.

But it was the choice of a group of SUNY Fredonia students who devoted their entire mid-March hiatus to a service-learning experience far removed from western New York State.

“It was an adventure that I truly believe is life changing,” said Ellie Reddy, professor in SUNY Fredonia’s School of Education. “It is amazing to see and actually experience the poverty, to see life in another culture, to be part of their lives – even for such a short period of time.”

Formerly British Honduras, Belize has been an independent nation since 1981. Sandwiched between Mexico to the northwest and Guatemala to the west and south, Belize is as big as Massachusetts, with a population of 300,000 – about the size of Buffalo. It’s also the only English-speaking country in Central America.

What the nine SUNY Fredonia students – with majors in literacy, childhood education, speech pathology and audiology, English and social work – and their two advisers found were classrooms so poorly equipped that childrens had to share pencils, and schools built of concrete blocks that didn’t have any windows – just wooden panels that swing open to let in the daylight. Electricity was limited, as were supplies for learning and equipment for recreational activities.

Poverty was beyond description in many areas, and numerous social problems -- from poverty and crime to unemployment and sexually transmitted diseases – plagued cities. Living conditions were primitive in much of the country; many homes lacked indoor plumbing.

SUNY Fredonia established its Belize connection more than a year ago through Friends Across Borders, a program that works with U.S. schools to create learning opportunities in international communities. FAB is part of InterVol, a medical group that connects hospitals and medical professionals with other countries. FAB chapters can also be found at Colgate University, Notre Dame and the University of Rochester.

An enormous amount of preparation was done by the SUNY Fredonia students before the climbed aboard their flight in Buffalo on March 17. Weekly classes began in August, followed by extensive meetings during January and February. Each week’s gathering had its own topic geared to prepare students for what they would encounter in Belize. The SUNY Fredonia FAB chapter designed and sewed 275 hand puppets to distribute to children waiting to be seen by traveling medical doctors in Belize. Students in all campus dorms donated school supplies to be delivered by their fellow classmates.

SUNY Fredonia students were assigned to work in a wide variety of settings in Belize, including a 500-student primary school and a school for the deaf, which serves 125 students. Childhood majors worked with children, ages 6-10, on literacy skills. Speech therapy students worked one-on-one with severely language-delayed children as well as with deaf students at the high school level.

The social work contingent spent much of its time with Youth for the Future, an umbrella organization that addresses social issues in the community among youth through the age of 30. Cruising streets in an SUV, they talked to current and former gang members, met with representatives of a police outreach program and toured two juvenile detention facilities and a national 4-H training center. SUNY Fredonia students also helped launch an HIV/AIDS outreach program in Dangriga, a coastal city battling a serious AIDS problem.

“Our students found all of these experiences to be genuinely eye opening, markedly broadening their experiences, understanding and perspectives,” said Dr. Dick Reddy, a professor in SUNY Fredonia’s Sociology/Anthropology Department. “The experiences went far beyond what they have experienced academically or even personally in the U.S.”

While Belize certainly lacks tangible assets, there’s no shortage of resourcefulness and creativity among even its youngest citizens.

“We watched children playing after lunch with nothing but their imaginations. They would play catch with a shoe; draw in the dirt with a stick. They took old water bottles, filled them with stones, and then stuck a stick out of the end to make noise shakers. They would then shake these in different rhythms for others to dance,” Ms. Reddy said.

“They would ‘drum’ on the wood panels that were the windows to the school,” she said, and added, “Can they ever dance!”

It is amazing what they can accomplish in the schools with so few resources, Ms. Reddy said

A tour of the University of Belize gave SUNY Fredonia students an interesting perspective into college campuses in other countries. A visit to the Belize zoo, which has fences but no cages, gave students and opportunity to see and photograph native animals, including spider monkeys, jaguars and toucans – the national bird. A rare experience of spending time in a tropical rain forest and jungle environment was also included, as was a visit to Belmopan, the Belize capital.

A drive over dirt roads led to Mayan ruins in Caracol. It was quite a challenge to get to the top of the tallest building, the equivalent of 14 stories.

“Our students were genuinely impressed with Belize as a country,” Dr. Reddy said. “It is fascinating in any number of social and cultural ways – quite diverse and facing any number of significant social and economic challenges.”

One of the most touching moments of the eight-day trip occurred on March 25, the last day. School children staged a ceremony on the dirt courtyard, sang the national anthem, recited poems and presented thank-you gifts to their SUNY Fredonia visitors. “They have nothing but share what little they have,” Dr. Reddy said.

“It was a very powerful moment. It was humbling to be accepting gifts from a group that had so little.”

The Belize experience helped set the groundwork for more Friends Across Boarders overseas educational projects to Belize. “One of our major goals was a ‘fact-finding’ mission to set up future trips, to find out what they needed in the schools we were working in, how we could work with them in the future,” Ms. Reddy said. “We had so many questions that needed to be explored.”

The Belizean people embraced the SUNY Fredonia students with opened arms and open hearts, Dr. Reddy said. “The people we worked with were very welcoming and helpful and supportive. They were marvelous hosts and genuinely grateful for the interest we took in them and in their lives and deeply appreciative of the things we were able to do with them and of the promise of additional activities with them in the years to come.”

“This was a wonderful opportunity to work with and to learn from professionals in another country and to work with and interact with young people from that country,” Dr. Reddy said. “There was a lot of learning preparing to go to Belize, and then in the actual process of working with the people there. I also think we learned a great deal from one another as we shared our experiences and our perspectives on those experiences with one another.”

Fredonia has already assembling lists of items to collect for next year’s trip, ranging from laptop computers to school supplies, including pencils, Scotch tape, rulers and crayons, to physical education equipment, such as Frisbees and jump ropes.

“I think each of us took back with us more than we gave,” Ms. Reddy said. “It was an amazing experience!”