What are the best opportunities to do volunteer and charity work in Belize?

If you want to do volunteer or charity work here in Placencia, we have the Humane Society. You can also go into schools and volunteer with the reading and in the kid’s library. It requires some documentation like a police record. You cannot just go into the schools, but once you present your documents, everything is okay.

 
Every year they have events here in Placencia, Belize where I am sure we could use some extra hands. It would be nice if we had a few...

If you want to do volunteer or charity work here in Placencia, we have the Humane Society. You can also go into schools and volunteer with the reading and in the kid’s library. It requires some documentation like a police record. You cannot just go into the schools, but once you present your documents, everything is okay.

 
Every year they have events here in Placencia, Belize where I am sure we could use some extra hands. It would be nice if we had a few volunteers for Lobster Fest. We also have fishing tournaments. These are locally prepared, but I am sure they are open to having extra hands. I mean anywhere in the world, if you have more people helping, it will be more successful. That is another option.
 
There are also clean up drives here in Belize, especially in Placencia. Quite a bit of what people in more developed countries would assume would be done by the government is done here in Placencia by the villagers. We cannot wait for the government because the government does not have a lot of cash. They do not collect a lot of taxes, so most things here in the peninsula of Placencia are done by the people. There is a vast opportunity to do volunteer work.
 
In another aspect, sometimes we have other people who come to do dental missions or eye checkups. I see people who come here and assist in major sicknesses or even in minor sicknesses. Some come here to perform surgeries. Therefore, there is a vast opportunity here in Belize to do volunteer work. It all has do with what aspect of life you are coming from.
 
There’s a program here about corals, if you are a person who likes to dive and don’t mind spending some time under water; then that’s another way you can volunteer.  There’s a lot to do. In Belize you will find a place here that you could fit in perfectly. If you are a person who works with environmental programs, we have SEA (Southern Environmental Association), a group that builds up mangroves. 
 
I know some people here who are working on a project. They  pick up garbage and make something out of it, just to make the place look nicer. They make something creative. They even ask the kids to bring stoppers and they make some nice underwater stuff and other things out of garbage. They make the school look a lot nicer, as they add artwork. The artwork is all made up from garbage that were picked up from around the community. They make fish or corals out of plastic bottle caps.

There are lots of good opportunities for volunteer work here in Belize. The humane society is very active in Belize, especially in Placencia. Rotary is very active in Belize, also especially in Placencia. There are also church groups. There are also a lot of volunteers from the States that come down and do missionary work, and medical work here in Belize. They'll come down and do work for a week for free. They have dental missions, eye exams and all that is for free.
 
There...

There are lots of good opportunities for volunteer work here in Belize. The humane society is very active in Belize, especially in Placencia. Rotary is very active in Belize, also especially in Placencia. There are also church groups. There are also a lot of volunteers from the States that come down and do missionary work, and medical work here in Belize. They'll come down and do work for a week for free. They have dental missions, eye exams and all that is for free.
 
There are art festivals held here in Belize, which are events which people can volunteer to help set up or get involved selling tickets. A lot of expats, no matter who they are or where they come from, do something new or do something different to help out, so there's always volunteer activity available in Belize.

I have my pet causes here in Belize, as anybody would. I volunteer in kid's dentistry at the Smile Clinic all the time, giving out toothbrushes, showing kids how to brush their teeth, and telling them about dental hygiene while the dentists take a look at them, filling their cavities, etc.
 
I also volunteer at the maternity ward here at the Polyclinic in San Pedro, which is a multi-faceted clinic. They have what they call the Baby Day on Wednesdays. The patients bring in all...

I have my pet causes here in Belize, as anybody would. I volunteer in kid's dentistry at the Smile Clinic all the time, giving out toothbrushes, showing kids how to brush their teeth, and telling them about dental hygiene while the dentists take a look at them, filling their cavities, etc.
 
I also volunteer at the maternity ward here at the Polyclinic in San Pedro, which is a multi-faceted clinic. They have what they call the Baby Day on Wednesdays. The patients bring in all their little babies, where they are weighed and checked. It is just a total chaos because when these little infants start screaming, they need many volunteers to help process them get the paperwork filled out. I'll do that.
 
My third pet cause is the Humane Society for Animal Welfare. That is what they call Saga and the good work they do is the neutering, spaying, and treating injured, sick animals.
 
There are tons of volunteering opportunities and those are the three that I gravitate to. Then my bigger project here is helping get more funding and better equipment for the Polyclinic, which is the free clinic that serves everybody on the island. Just recently, they acquired their own X-ray machine, which is a really big deal. What I do is just getting procedures in place, intake, allowing people's files and records to be accessible so the doctor has the information that he needs to make the proper assessment. The Lions Club is working very heavily and fiercely with the Polyclinic here and I actively support the Lions. My Mom is one of the very first women presidents of the Lions Club in Canada, so the society has always been close to my heart.

All groups welcome volunteers. 

 

(Health educator volunteers with Cornerstone Foundation in San Ignacio, Belize pictured.) 

The best opportunities to do volunteer work in Belize would be in the orphanages or in the old-age homes. In this part of the world, people do not really go out of their way to adopt children. It is not like in the States, where if one family is financially stable and they only have one kid, they decide to have another kid through adoption. It just doesn’t work like that here in Belize.
 
I know somebody who adopted a child here. They were born Belizeans but they went to...

The best opportunities to do volunteer work in Belize would be in the orphanages or in the old-age homes. In this part of the world, people do not really go out of their way to adopt children. It is not like in the States, where if one family is financially stable and they only have one kid, they decide to have another kid through adoption. It just doesn’t work like that here in Belize.
 
I know somebody who adopted a child here. They were born Belizeans but they went to live in the States for a while, and then they came back to retire here in Belize. She couldn’t have another kid so she figured to adopt a Belizean kid.
 
I had a friend who started an orphanage here in Belize. Unfortunately, he passed away but there were arrangements for the orphanage to continue for some time.

 

(Sister Maria Caritas Lawrence [center] graduate of St. John's College, Belize was a recipient of the Order of th British Empire for her many contributions to Belize.)