Let your donation and gifts be a reminder of your visit and your kindness to the people who have benefited!
The Toledo Ecotourism Association's main objective is to help alleviate poverty in Toledo and also to give back to the community. The program continues to strive in seeking opportunities and donations from funding agencies and charitable organizations to help in meeting its objective on a yearly basis - providing basic necessities and supplies for children of many poor Mayan families in southern Belize (called the forgotten district).
Several guests that have visited our program have taken the initiative to bring small donations and gifts such as pencils, erasers, story books, notebooks, or flash drives that are given to children who are really in need of these supplies to help them in their educational studies and improvement.
So far, Toledo Ecotourism has been able to help more than 50 young aspiring students of San Antonio and Santa Elena villages from both primary and secondary levels with basic school items such as calculators, school bags, pencils, flash drives, and other paper materials. These supplies were donated in 2015 by a nonprofit organization called Project Water Buffalo, a grass roots international initiative of volunteers led by Nick Tran. Under the supervision of this volunteer team, a donation of school supplies was made to the office of San Luis Rey R.C School in San Antonio village.
Aside from bringing donations of school supplies, there are guests that also bring along with them small gifts of sporting materials such as soccer balls, jersey t-shirts, and caps. We are asking for more donations of sporting equipment and materials to help support a new initiative that the TEA launched in January of 2018, with the formation of two sets of football teams in San Antonio to help keep youths off the streets and prevent them from engaging in violence and criminal activities.
In 2016, we also received donations of footwear for children and adults from a volunteer team from Utah led by Aileen Gibson. This has benefited many individuals in the community of San Antonio by providing pairs of slippers to keep them safe from hazardous sharp object and also promoting a healthy life style. Children were also given small gifts of school materials.
There are guests who do special donations for the Toledo Ecotourism Association to keep the program running and to promote sustainable tourism in the communities of Toledo. We have received several small items as donations that help with the administrative work of the TEA, such as notebooks and flash drives to assist with digital storage. We are asking for donations of printers, laptops, and projectors to enable the Toledo Ecotourism Association to participate in business expos, school career day expos, and to make school and community presentations with projection so we can accomplish our objectives and long term goals.
In September of 2017, we lost our website due to not being able to pay for hosting from Godaddy and we were offline for four months, but we are so thankful to have received a donation from the pastor of the Church of the Good Shepherd, United Church of Christ, which has allowed us to purchase a new hosting plan at Godaddy.com. We are now able to go online again to continue to promote what we do in our program and also to continue to attract visitors to southern Belize who contribute to the development of our district by participating in our activities.
Current Activities by Toledo Ecotourism Association in 2022:
* Forming a football team to promote sports in San Antonio village with the objective of keeping youths off the streets and getting them involved in doing something that they are passionate about. We are seeking donations of balls, small cones, football boots, and jerseys/uniforms for game matches and training sessions.
* Seeking donations of basic school supplies to enable better learning for high school students.
The Toledo Ecotourism Association appreciates any donations or gifts of basic materials that assist children with their education, health, and recreation and thereby benefit the entire community.
Completed Upgrade of Bathroom Facility in 2022:
Special acknowledgement for Full Basket Belize (FFB) for supporting this initiative.
In the year 2020-2021 during the pandemic in Belize, TEA was granted the opportunity to apply for a grant to upgrade its bathroom facilities in San Antonio. In both years, FBB had approved application and hence the completion of this project was completed by August of 2021. Through this project, San Antonio Guesthouse is now proud to inform its future visitors and guests that they now have two flush toilets and 2 shower rooms with tile flooring for comfortable use and tranquility.
Come Visit and enjoy our new facility in San Antonio, Toledo.
