Students will volunteer over winter break in Belize

Instead of going home to be with family and friends over winter break, a group of 19 USC students will travel to Belize to volunteer at an orphanage.

The students will assist at the Liberty Children’s Home, which is run by the United Kingdom-based Liberty Foundation, near Belize’s capital in Central America.

The trip to Belize is one of three international alternative break programs sponsored by the USC Volunteer Center.

The purpose of alternative winter break is to provide an opportunity for USC students to engage in international service, said Nina Portugal, a senior majoring in English and a student trip coordinator for AWB Belize.

“AWB is a service-learning experience,” Portugal said. “It is an opportunity to serve abroad and bring global extremes back to the USC community.”

For 20 days, the students will be helping children from the Liberty Children’s Home who are on break for the holiday season.

“We will work in the orphanage from breakfast until after dinner tutoring kids and planning sports activities and art projects,” Portugal said. “We will [also] teach them about healthy eating and how to properly use a toothbrush.”

Portugal said the group wanted to volunteer at an orphanage in a country with a high poverty rate and chose this specific orphanage because a group of USC undergraduate students worked there two summers ago.

“Thirty-nine percent of the youth [in Belize] lack basic needs and don’t make it onto secondary education,” Portugal said.

Victor Paredes-Colonia, a senior majoring in international relations and economics and the AWB coordinator, said he is excited to travel to Belize and work with children.

“I’m looking forward to living in an environment where I’ve never lived in and working with children in a long term capacity,” Paredes-Colonia said.

As much as Paredes-Colonia said he hopes to make a positive impact on the lives of the orphans, he said he is also looking for personal development.

“I hope to learn something about myself in a new environment,” he said.

Participants of AWB Belize are responsible for paying for the program themselves.

To help lessen the cost of the program for individual volunteers, AWB hosts a variety of fundraisers, including a salsa night held in November in the Ronald Tutor Campus Center Ballroom.

“We have an Adopt-a-Breaker program, which allows friends and family to sponsor an individual participant,” Portugal said.

Scholarships are also available through the Volunteer Center. Students who obtain a scholarship through the Volunteer Center are required to share their knowledge from the trip in the USC community.

“They must bring a part of the trip back to USC,” Portugal said. “Some students are creating documentaries, writing blogs or volunteering at children’s shelters in L.A. when they return from Belize.”

The Liberty Children’s Home was founded in 2005 and is designed for the abandoned and sexually abused children in need.