It was spearheaded by the community policing unit and we spoke to the officer in charge:

Reporter
"What was the purpose of this award ceremony?"

ACP Howell Gillett
"We awarded 10 high school students and one sixth -form student with a scholarship each. The main objective is for us to keep young people in school. We are guided by a study, especially one done by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, ECLAC, one of the overriding findings of that commission was that if a child is allowed to stay in school up to age 17, the chances of that child becoming a criminal or involved in criminal activities reduces by 50%. So we are trying to help as much as possible. I know it's not reaching to everybody who should be receiving it, but I will tell you a little story about some of those who we awarded today."

"Two of the parents are amputees, and I believe two of the children awarded today, their fathers were killed by gun violence. So it tells us a story that they may not be able to continue on with their studies, so we wanted to help them."

"And what we're doing by doing this, it creates awareness so that others could possibly look at it to follow and do some of the same activities to keep our young people in school. That is so important for us."

"The more we help our young people now, the less we'll have to deal with them as a police department in the future."

Reporter
"With the struggles that these kids are going through, were they chosen specifically?"

ACP Howell Gillett
"Correct. I'm happy that you asked that. We have community policing officers across the city, across the district, and across the country. The community policing officers were the one who directly chose them based on their circumstances, and we believe we've reaches some of the most needed children within the communities that we serve."

Reporter
"What does this scholarship cover?"

ACP Howell Gillett
"It covers everything including tuition, books, and uniforms. So they have no reason why not to go to school."

"And we'll be following up on them to see their grades because it comes with some conditions. They have to be passing, of course. And another part of it is that they must be a part of the cadet. So that's a prerequisite for them to have gotten the scholarship."

Reporter
"With the high school students that received the scholarship, will it cover the entire four years and tertiary level or only the four years in high school?"

ACP Howell Gillett
"It's an year by year basis. So every year we review the prerequisites to see that they're following."

"And if they're doing it, then we continue. And there's a student here who is receiving the sixth firm scholarship. that student has been with us since first form, so it just tells you that what we're doing is working and that student I'm proud to say is an A student at his institution."

Reporter
"What are the requirements for the scholarship like what do they have to maintain during those years?"

ACP Howell Gillett
"They have to maintain a 3.0 or higher for them to continue on, the behavior has to be good, we can't get bad reports from the school or from the parents, they can't be involved in any crime or criminal activity."

Lifeline Make Music With Donation

This afternoon The Lifeline Foundation of Belize officially handed over musical equipment valued at approximately $4,000 to O'Brien's Music Studio. A press release says that they now have enough guitars, guitar cases and music stands to provide each student with a guitar for instruction.

The donation will be used through a year long music education program with Pathlight International for 2024/2025, as well as opening the door to accept an additional 10 scholarship students for group class through O'Brien's Music Studio.

Established in 2004, the Lifeline Foundation has raised more than two million dollars, which has been used to support child-centred institutions and programs within Belize.