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West Texas A&M University is making learning easier for countless children throughout the Central American country of Belize.WTAMU is donating thousands of desks and chairs of all shape and functionality to be distributed in Belize. There are also blackboards, filing cabinets and even nursing equipment. All told the donation, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, will fill eight 40ft shipping containers. 

Seven containers already have been filled and sent to Houston for shipping. Volunteers, which includes WT students will load the remaining container Saturday, February 20th, from 9am to 11am at the Old Education Building on the WTAMU campus (2402 2nd Ave).

The items are a part of large amount of surplus that became available because of remodeling and demolition for new construction. Much of the surplus was sold at auction; the material headed to Belize is what remained.

Coordinating the shipping and distribution is TWAW's new employee, Tim Hagen. He is in charge of our "redemptive recycling program".  TWAW’s mission is to match churches and organizations to the needs and opportunities for service and to gather and channel resources to those organizations. 

One of TWAW’s goals to help Belizeans achieve self-sufficiently and  believes education is a cornerstone of that effort. Another goal is to encourage Belizeans who have the means to help the countrymen. To that end, Belize Natural Energy Charitable Trust has agreed to pay the more than $40,000 shipping costs for WT donation.  In addition, the trust already had already agreed to pay this year for 12 more containers of goods, which include much needed medicines and medical equipment. 

TWAW is on track to send at least 20 containers this year. TWAW’s gathering of educational items for Belize has become a huge ministry. All told, more than 25 containers with over $1,000,000 worth of supplies since its modest beginning several years ago. It began with a teacher appalled by the huge amount of usable educational items and materials discarded at the end of each school year. After obtaining permission, she started gathering the material destined for the dumpster. That small effort snowballed to become one of TWAW’s largest ministries.