Anne Frahn, co-founder of Teachers For a Better Belize
Toledo Belize may be thousands of miles from Palo Alto, but for local resident Anne Frahn, distance is not an obstacle to making a difference for the people of this remote area.
For the past 20 years, Anne and her sister Kathy Dolan have traveled to Toledo through organization they started called Teachers For a Better Belize, which trains and supports educators in this largely poor, remote region that is rarely visited by tourists.
Why Belize?
After completing a master’s degree in international relations in 1996, Anne drafted Kathy- then a second grade teacher in St. Louis- to go to Belize and help teach summer school in a tiny village.
“There were no paved roads when we first traveled to Toledo,” Anne remembers. “It was an eight hour journey on a dirt road to get to the village where we taught summer school.”
kids in Toledo, Belize. Photo by TFABB
Although Anne and Kathy were recruited to teach the children language skills, it became quickly clear that their real work was helping the school’s largely unprepared teachers. Their informal teacher training made such an impression that the principal asked them to come back the following summer. Charmed by the warmth of the Belizean people and committed to this remote, ‘lost corner’ of the country, Anne and Kathy said yes.
The two sisters returned to the U.S. (Kathy to St. Louis and Anne to the Bay Area), and started Teachers For a Better Belize (TFABB) to raise money for their efforts. Friends and family quickly jumped in to help, Anne convinced an airline to donate tickets, and in 1997 they returned to Belize, bringing two American teachers to help with the training effort.
Fast forward to 2015, and TFABB’s summer training is now required for all teachers in Toledo and has been recognized as a model program by Belize’s education ministry.
Over the last year, TFABB has worked with 85 teachers to improve language arts instruction, facilitated a principal leadership training program for 50 administrators, and continued to train Toledo’s growing population of preschool teachers, all with the support of American volunteers and on the ground partners in Belize.
Engaging youth and adults from Palo Alto in Belize through service
With Anne’s knowledge of Belize and reputation for competence and leadership, it was no surprise that she was asked by Dan Harper, one of the ministers of The Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto (UUCPA) to help organize a service trip for teens planned for the summer of 2105. As a longtime member of the UUCPA Church, Anne was excited for inspire her son and other youth from her community to make a difference in Belize.
Anne Frahn works to build a school garden. Photo by Anne Frahn.
As Anne contacted nongovernmental agencies (NGOs) in Belize to set up service projects, the UUCPA teens raised funds to support the trip through bake sales, online fundraising and more. In the end, the teens raised over $6000 to fund five service projects in Belize:
- Installing solar panels: In partnership with a local organization called Plenty, the UUCPA youth and adult volunteers helped install solar panels that brought electricity to a remote village in Toledo. A particular thrill was plugging in a laptop and printer and seeing the village connect to the web for the first time.
- Painting a school: volunteers spent three days painting a local school alongside local kids from the village.
- Digging a garden: this project was the most physically demanding, as the plot for the garden was covered in broken cement when the Palo Alto group arrived, requiring the teens to dig up the hardscape in the hot sun for many hours a day.
- Beach Clean Up: The group worked with a local organization called TIDE (Toledo Institute for Development and Environment) to clean the beach in a town called Punta Gorda.
- Book sorting: TFABB sends 60 to 80 boxes of books to Belize every year for its teacher training program, and the UUCPA teens spent several days sorting the donations by age and school.
UUCPA teens helped sort 80 boxes of donated books for TFABBs training programs. Photo by Anne Frahn.
Challenges and rewards of hard work
For Anne and the other UUCPA volunteers, the physical challenge of the work required for the service projects was daunting but rewarding. “We did intense manual labor in the heat and humidity for many hours each day, and that was a different experience,” Anne said. “It gave us a new appreciation for the difficulty of doing physical work.”
Justine Burt, one of the chaperones on the trip, agreed, saying: “We spent hours in the hot sun clearing the beach in Punta Gorda but we barely made a dent in the trash. The reality of how much needed to be done was overwhelming.”
Palo Alto teens learned the value- and difficulty of manual labor. Photo by Anne Frahn.
Teens form close bonds and build empathy
For most of the service projects, the UUCPA group worked alongside local villagers and teenagers, who often invited the Americans into their homes for lunch. These exchanges allowed the Palo Alto teens to learn first hand about cultural sensitivity. “It was sometimes a struggle to remind the kids to dress appropriately,” Anne said. “But when they saw how modestly the villagers dressed and their simple thatched roof houses, the UU teens gained a real respect for local customs.”
The long and challenging days also brought the group close together and the teens who started out as mere acquaintances formed strong bonds. “My son didn’t want to go at first,” said Justine Burt. “But by the end, he became really good friends with the other kids and was sad when the trip was over. The experience of seeing how people live in Belize gave him a new appreciation and gratitude for his life in Palo Alto.”
UUCPA group in Belize. Photo by Anne Frahn.
To learn more about TFABB or make a donation, visit the organization’s website.
To learn more about the United Universalist Church of Palo Alto, click here.
Anne Frahn and her son Harrison in Belize.
