History of the Corozal Church of Christ Primary School by Jerry Guidicy

Corozal Church of Christ Primary School was started in 1991. The first year they had one class of five year-olds in the church. The next year they built a little building by the church and had two classes. In 1993 they moved to the present location and built three rooms. Then they just added space as needed.

There have been many churches and individuals involved over the years. They would stay a couple of years and pull out. The last church to sponsor the school dropped out in 2002. The school was in desperate circumstances. They were going to have to turn the school over to the government. The principal called me and asked if I had any suggestions. I told her that I would try to get 12 women to send $100 per month. I thought that would be easy to find. We have over 1 million women in our fellowship. We never reached over 6 women. That was for only 6 months.

The principal was getting advice from a preacher who told her that he did not think it was a good idea for women to form a board and raise money for this school. She wrote me and told me that he was going to see if he could get someone to do this. I told her that was wonderful, that I had no idea about that sort of thing anyway.

Long story short:

He couldn't find anyone, but still thought it was a bad idea for us to try this. She was desperate and had no choice; she had teachers that were not being paid and threatening to quit. In March of 2003 we started working with the school

Needless to say six women paying $100 per month does not add up to $1200. Christian Relief Fund in Amarillo, Texas came to our rescue and sent us $300 per month for 6 months. Some of us sent more money for about a year.

In the summer of 2003, all of the board members went to the school and worked for one week just cleaning and throwing things away that had not been touched in years. Someone had sent textbooks that belonged in a high school that we took to a library. They were taking up 1/2 of a room. They wouldn't throw them away and they couldn't use them, but we had no trouble getting rid of all the broken things that Americans had sent. If it is broken here, the trip down doesn't seem to fix it. Just throw it away; don't send it to a third world country. They can't fix most things.

Working with the government we got two of our teachers on government salaries, and we didn't have to pay them. That reduced our payroll from$ 1200.00 per month to $400.00.

2004
We had a little extra money and we each donated some, and we were able to build two new classrooms and a library. The structure was built on top of an already existing building. We had to pour a concrete floor that would hold the weight. Our building is a designated hurricane shelter, so we have to have more steel and better construction that something that is not. Our cost on that structure amounted to $15,000.00. The expansion is 60x24 feet. We had a donation of $500.00. Also some doors and windows were donated. The city did the electrical work for us free of charge.

2005
A school bus was donated to us and we filled it with school supplies, athletic equipment and 2000 library books. The board of directors in Corozal flew to St. Louis with his two children and spent four days driving the bus back to Belize in August in extreme heat. A water tank for drinking water was purchased that year, and a 5000-foot concrete & chain link fence was built in addition to a four-foot sidewalk from the front gate to the building.

2006
We built a new room for the kindergarten and furnished it with high quality wooden furniture and playground equipment. We sealed the entire building with stucco. This was important since the salt water really eats away at the concrete blocks.

We also built a new storage room. We now can store the things that need to be out of the building, like lawn mowers and bus tires.

We paid tuition for 4 girls and 1 boy to High School. These students are required to attend the Church of Christ in Corozal 3 out of 4 Sunday's per month. This was made possible by a group of young marrieds from the Philo Church of Christ in Urbana, IL, one ladies class in Festus, Mo., a lady from Poplar Bluff, Mo. and the Philo Rd. Church.

You can see why a church might not have wanted to take this project.

2007
Our top priority is to make what we have better.
We want to paint the entire school and add tile to the floor in some classrooms.
We would also like to add adult education in reading and math.