Why they need your help

Caye Caulker kids need your help because their current options are not acceptable.


After primary school (Standard 6), Caye Caulker children and their parents are faced with a difficult decision, and no good choices. They can:

Quit school. Most children on Caye Caulker are forced to quit school after Standard 6 (average age: 14), and search for employment.

Unaccompanied daily commute to a dangerous city. Belize City is a scary place for anyone, let alone a child. Recently, a school child was held at knifepoint for her cellular phone. Parents and children are terrified of random acts of violence. The other option, San Pedro, is more expensive, and requires a young child to negotiate the streets of an international tourist desination.

Children wake up as early as 4:30 to be on a 6AM water taxi to the mainland or San Pedro; they return on the very last boat and don't get home until 6:30PM. Rain or shine, they travel 45 minutes by boat, then taxi or walk to their school. The water taxi costs parents $200BZ ($100US) each month, plus school tuition, books, uniform, meals, and supplies. For most families, the cost of the water taxi alone prohibits their child from this option.

Go live in a different city with extended family or family friend. Very commonly, a family's only option financially is for the child to board in a distant city. This happens as early as age 12. One single mother told us that if there is no highschool on Caye Caulker, she will be forced to send her children to live with a relative in Belize's Northern City of Corazol, while she seeks work in another country to send enough money back to send her kids to high school.