Twelve secondary level students have been awarded two-year academic scholarships totaling twenty-five thousand, two hundred United States dollars (US $25,200).

RESTORE Belize, through the United Nations Development Programme’s ‘Enabling, Gender - Responsive Disaster Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean’ (EnGenDER) Project, was able to assist young deserving students whose family circumstances were compromised by the economic recession exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Ten girls and two boys were provided with scholarship packages covering tuition, uniforms, books and tutoring expenses.

At the start of the pandemic, the EnGenDER project, funded by the Government of Canada and the UK Government, repurposed US$1.1M to support the alleviation of social and economic shocks associated to the current COVID-19 Pandemic and address the compelling needs of the most vulnerable segments of the population in nine Caribbean countries.  This support “perfectly aligns with the project’s overarching focus of addressing the inequalities and socio-economic vulnerabilities for women and girls and those most at risk” (Denise Antonio, Resident Representative UNDP Belize).

The ‘RESTORE Belize’, ‘I AM BELIZE’ Scholarship Programme seeks to break cycles of generational poverty through the provision of opportunities for academic advancement.