I first became aware of Caye Caulker while searching for my next personal charitable mission that I do annually. Caye Caulker is a small Isle off the coast of Belize, however, each Cay is forced to be self-reliant, their mainland chooses not to support them. CC didn't have its own school system leading to mass illiteracy; unwanted animals roamed freely and their way to handle all the unwanted dogs dumped off by other countries was to lay strychnine-laced meat down the walk paths each night to kill the animals. Joni Miller was the founder to start Ocean Academy, a multi-grade school program within a library/community center. Teachers are 1 or 2 permanent residents of the isle, the rest being visitors that will commit to teach whatever they wanted for a 2-week commitment. Children learned skills by being matched to different businesses, which there aren't many. Originally each family would send only 1 child to the mainland for school but would need to pull the child out by age 8-12 because they couldn't afford the $25 each way daily water taxi, uniforms, books, supplies, food, etc. How can illiterate parents, without little income handle that for one child much less for others? I have given funds to Ocean Academy for supplies, arranged books from closed USA schools to be sent, convinced computer companies to send laptops; as well as worked with Claire Saunders in the quest to refurbish the CAT Santuary run by Madi Collins. Much work has been done at CAT, thanks to Claire (life threw me many challenges lately so Claire graciously stepped in), but now I'm healthier and starting back with helping Ocean Academy and CAT Santuary once again to continue in their growth. Note: last year 3 students earned full scholarships to US colleges including UCBerkeley and UCLA! Here's a YouTube snippet of the school: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=ocean+academy+caye+caulker+joni&&view=detail&mid=A14956DB619E38A0FD11A14956DB619E38A0FD11&FORM=VRDGAR
Review from #MyGivingStory