Imagine living every day without flushing toilets. Have you ever wondered where it all goes?  Not really right?  We take for granted the “little things” in life until we don’t have access to them.  I’d like to introduce you to a small community in Ambergris Caye, Belize, called San Mateo.  This community lacks proper infrastructure and most importantly lacks any kind of sanitation system.  So where does it go then?  Good question! As we all know when you gotta go, you gotta go and…it’s gotta go somewhere!!

Now let me introduce myself and the great team I volunteer with. My name is Cathy Power. I am a Registered Early Childhood Educator from Canada. I volunteer with an organization called Belize Community Conservation. We are affiliated with several other organizations and together we make up the team for the Kids 4 Clean Water Environmental Program Belize.   Welcome to the launch of our fundraising campaign. Thank you for taking a moment to stop by and thanks for being so interested in what we are doing. There is a smile out there with your name on it! Now back to my story!

Myself, along with two brilliant and dedicated ladies, Heather from Belize Community Conservation and Mary Beth from Caribbean Student Environmental Alliance (S.E.A.) have been investing our time with the children and families in a community that is crying out for help. The three of us started the Program in 2011 after Heather and I spent several years volunteering and exploring the community and then partnered with Caribbean SEA to offer a specific program to meet the needs of the Community and the children.  We have worked hard and have put together an amazing experience for some really special kids each year.   We call our program “Kids 4 Clean Water Belize”.  The last few years we have expanded the Program to partner with CYEN( Caribbean Youth Environment Network) Belize.  The expertise, the leadership and the passion that the CYEN team brings to our program is without a doubt an amazing benefit to the children and the community. We are so blessed to have these dedicated youths as role models for the children of San Mateo.

Each year we see our Program grow and new partnerships develop. It is a testament of the great things we are doing in the community.  Last year we had the Belizean Ministry of the Environment  and the Ministry for Youth Services take an interest and an active role in our Programs.  We were recognized by the Town Council and offered support for this year’s program (2016) in recognition of the contribution we are making to the community.  We incorporate and work with many well-respected organizations such as ACES and Mar Alliance as well as garner much support from local businesses and leaders in the town.  Take a few minutes to watch the video I have posted here and you will see for yourself the impact we are having in a community that needs this program and with children who have very little else and look forward to this program each year.

Let me try and tell you as much as I can as concisely as I can. I just wish you could experience and see it all through my eyes. Then you would know what I am talking about!!

THE PROGRAM   A week long adventure where the children and community come together to learn about various aspects of Clean Water and its impact on their own health and the environment they live in. They learn how water is a huge part of their lives and how each and every one of them can make a difference. Wow. Empowering right? You bet!

The IMPACT   Our program incorporates not only sanitation and hygiene but also respect for environmental conservation.  We teach about the Coral Reef, the Mangroves, and the wildlife including crocodiles and birds and why it is so important to protect these areas and animals.  Most importantly the children learn that THEY can make a difference.

THE COMMUNITY Less than a mile from the second largest reef in the world which boasts some of the best diving worldwide, on the fringe of San Pedro Town, is San Mateo. A place where many families live in a “shanty town” of small homes on stilts built with discarded wood and metal over a swamp where the mangrove once grew. Some may call it a Shanty Town but to the families it is their home and their community. The children talk about their home with so much love and pride. For a lot of them it is all they know.

San Mateo is a community desperate for the basic commodities that you and I take for granted, such as safe drinking water and sanitation or clean, healthy and safe places for their children to play.

We do water testing and education in the community. Over the course of the water testing we have identified contaminated sources of water and offered education and chlorine tablets to those families that were affected.  We have linked with many partners all working towards the same goals. 

Take a minute –explore the video and the pics.  Look at those faces and if you are looking to support something that will warm your heart this is it.. 

100% of the funds I raise here support Kids4CleanWater. I don't get paid. No one gets paid. We are strictly volunteer on this project. We do all of our own admin work on our own free and sometimes not so free time. It’s important to me, to us, to the kids. We feel we are making a difference and we love doing it.

**I have provided some links below if you want to explore the area more, read about the organizations and great people involved or view some fabulous pics of our adventures.**

One more thing... Please can you share?? Help us make this a success -- share it with your friends so they can share with their friends. We need to reach some of that massive population!  Thank you soooooo much!  #waterislife #cleanwater

Belize Community Conservation

Caribbean S.E.A.

Caribbean Youth Environmental Network (CYEN)

Video about San Mateo

News Article about our Program 

News article about water contamination

Where in the world is San Mateo? (video by 9 year old filmmaker Gigi Harris shares the difficult living conditions in San Mateo, Belize.) 
This film won 1st place in category Documentary, Division II, at the 2010 Reel Spirit Young Filmmakers