What a joy it was to participate in the Pack for a Purpose program in Belize this summer! While researching where we might track the elusive jaguar in the Belizean jungle, we found the Pack for a Purpose footprint on the Ka’ana Boutique Resort and Spa website. The nearby Succotz Primary School is the beneficiary of both the resort and its customers through the Pack for a Purpose program.
We’re very experienced travelers and always pack with great anticipation for each new adventure. This time was different. Planning the trip was so much more fun when we were thinking about how we should pack to provide the best possible benefit to the children. We wound up filling a leave-behind backpack with 20 pounds of supplies ranging from pencils and calculators, to shoes and soccer balls. We chose to leave our goods with the Ka’ana staff, who gratefully accepted our donation on behalf of the school. Having done that, we still wanted to anonymously visit the school campus to visualize how our donations would be put to use. The visit was one of the highlights of our trip. After a brief walk about, it was clear that the school is doing a great deal of good on a limited budget. While the physical facilities were small and simple, the school was also clean and well maintained. The children were orderly, but filled with enough laughter and mischief to be indistinguishable from students anywhere else in the world
Well done, Pack for a Purpose and Ka’ana. While we never found the elusive jaguar on this trip, we did track down this wonderful program, and plan to carry it with us on the trails that lie ahead.