Liberty Children's Home, Ladyville

Tom Emmett introduces the Libery Children's Home

Unbelizeable!

I spent five weeks of my summer holiday, 2010, in Belize. Before you get the wrong idea, I should point out this was not merely a very nice holiday lying on a Caribbean beach. Belize is one of the poorest counties in the world, with many serious social issues, including the highest and fastest growing rate of HIV/AIDS in the continent. I was there volunteering at Liberty Children’s Home in the charmingly-named Ladyville, just north of Belize City.

 Liberty is a wonderful organization set up to take in children who were abused or orphaned or whose parents couldn’t cope or were unable to care for their children financially. Established five years ago, it has had tremendous success in bringing love back into these children’s lives, through the considerable efforts and care of the remarkable staff. Liberty is totally reliant on donations, and perhaps it may improve your opinion of Lord Ashcroft to know he is a major contributor. Due to the recent, global, financial crisis, donations have grown fewer and fewer, and with some staffing cutbacks, Liberty is more in need than ever of volunteers and funding.

I have to say I went there with no pre-conceived ideas of what to expect and with only a vague idea of the work I would be doing. What I found was a group of the most loving, wonderful and certainly energetic kids I have ever come across, who were in fact so beautiful it did make some of the other volunteers and I joke “what do they do with the ugly children in Belize?!” Along with this was a set of staff who were worked off their feet, but who absolutely adored the fantastic children. Throughout my month there I helped with a wide variety of jobs, ranging from helping the groundskeeper Angel with the garden and animals they keep to raise money, to helping with the care of the kids, to teaching a little boy called Eric to read.

Despite its tiny physical size, Belize is one of the most culturally diverse and vibrant countries in the world, with large African, Latino and Mayan populations inhabiting it from its Caribbean coastline and islands to its Central American mountains and jungles. Although the official language is English (which everyone speaks fluently), it is much more common for people in Ladyville and the surrounding areas to speak in Creole to each other, a language also spoken in Jamaica and similar to Pidgin English in the South Pacific; further inland Belizeans will generally speak Spanish.

Eric came to Liberty with his three sisters and younger brother two years ago from a Spanish-speaking family, and consequently spoke no English when he arrived. It was one of the most satisfying parts of my work to see the progress he made in moving from “Town Mouse and Country Mouse” to “Jeremy Fisher” and beyond, with the incentive of hearing a “Thomas the Tank Engine” story from me when he was done.

Whilst I was there I became very close to some of the staff, who all went out of their way to make me and the other volunteers feel at home. Angel made doing work in the garden and with the animals an absolute joy with his funny stories and interesting insights. This was quite an accomplishment as I can assure you that digging in temperatures in excess of 100 Fahrenheit is tough stuff. Vanecia, the absolute angel in charge of the kitchen, caused great hilarity amongst the kids and other volunteers when she spent the afternoon braiding my hair. But my best friend there was one of the caregivers called Eugene, who after growing up in an orphanage and being moved from relative to relative said he felt “obligated to children, strangers and the poor.” With this wonderfully Christian outlook on life, he gave the kids a limitless supply of love and affection, and took care of me whilst I was there, taking me into town to play basketball, go to the gym and once even to Guatemala on a shopping excursion with his wife and a group of friends from Ladyville.

My month in Belize was an amazing and eye-opening experience, where I met some incredible people, saw a wonderful place, and witnessed how the problems in the world can be tackled, little by little. Belize is an excitingly new and fresh country, independent for less than thirty years, and despite its problems with AIDS, poverty and drug abuse, it has the potential to be a truly great nation.

If you wish to know more about Liberty, their website is; www.libertyfoundation.org.uk

Tom Emmett