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The standard five student says BCVI's summer program - which teaches crucial lessons to visually impaired children like him - is having funding problems and he wants to help by climbing for charity. He'll do it with his dad, Joe Garel and the pair told us about it today:…

Rowan Garel, Will Climb Victoria Peak
"I'll be climbing Victoria Peak because we want to raise funds for the summer camp that I go to every year."

Monica Bodden
"You and who will be climbing Victoria Peak?"

Rowan Garel, Will Climb Victoria Peak
"My dad and I."

Monica Bodden
"How did this idea all came about Rowan?"

Rowan Garel, Will Climb Victoria Peak
"Well the summer camp lost some major funders. We still had the summer camp last year but we only just had enough money, so we thought that we should do something about that, you know raise funds so that we could have it because this is very important."

Joe Garel, Will Climb with son
"For the past couple of years we notice that BCVI was having a bit of trouble getting funds to run the summer camp and while Rowan spends a lot of time all over the country, we travel a lot with him, we don't like keeping him back. A lot of the kids that attend the summer camp are not as privileged; there are some from some of the remote villages and they really look forward to coming all the way to Belize City or Cayo or wherever they have the summer camp and it's an outing that they really look forward to every year and it's been difficult over the past couple years to get funding. They are wondering how or if they will be able to run it in the future so in talking with Rowan - he loves hiking, he loves the outdoors so I asked him if he would be interested in doing something along that line to help raise funds for this summer camp."

Carla Ayres Musa, B.C.V.I.
"Actually we are amazed and are very proud of Rowan. We always have been and this is the kind of support that we wish everybody could give and we know that we appreciate it coming from anyone but it is especially heartwarming coming from Rowan and wanting to help not just BCVI but the people and the children that are in summer camp with him."

Rowan Garel, Will Climb Victoria Peak
"Well I don't think it will be easy, it will definitely be challenging but once I train properly I think I can do it."

Joe Garel, Will Climb with son
"It's kind of difficult because it would be nice to have some hills but Belize City is flat and that's where we are and i am not always in Belize City with him either, I spend a lot of time in Belmopan, so when I am here we go on hikes along Princess Margaret Drive, doing a few miles in the evening, walking at least two - three - four miles. But just having him get used to walking continuously for a long period of time."

"To be honest with you, I've been watching his pace and he keeps a pretty decent pace. I've been to Victoria Peak a number of times and we usually do it in two and a half days. He may be able to do it in 3 days, but I am looking more to like three and half to four days."

Carla Ayres Musa, B.C.V.I.
"We have a blog setup that we are going to be updating regularly with Rowan following his training and Joe's training and the actual climb and that's ambassadorsforsight.blogspot.com and you can go on there and follow us so you get updates as we get update with Rowan. That will also link you to B.C.V.I. website where you could just click a button and make a donation. It's that easy."

As you might expect Rowan is the top of his standard five class at hummingbird elementary. To find a link to the site where you can contribute, log unto 7newsbelize.com. http://bcvi.org/help.html

In Belize, send donations to BCVI at
PO Box 525
Belize City, Belize.

The climb starts on March 25th……