Mary Open Doors (MOD) is committed to empowering and improving the well-being of women and children afflicted by domestic violence in Belize. The current project seeks funding to purchase the land and building now currently occupied by MOD and used as its shelter facility. To date, Mary Open Doors have sheltered 130 women at its emergency shelter while providing education and human rights awareness for approximately 1650 drop-ins at its resource center.
The Cayo District has the second highest statistic country-wide for the incidence of domestic violence and the second highest number of femicides connected to domestic violence. At the time of its opening in 2008, MOD entered into an arrangement with the owner of the building and land to use the building as a shelter until the owner needed the property. The owner decided in 2014 to sell the property but has given MOD first option to purchase.
Mary Open Doors is the only Domestic Violence shelter providing emergency shelter assistance to women in the Cayo district and is one of only 3 established shelters in the entire country of Belize. MOD welcomes the opportunity to permanent own its own facilities and wishes to preserve the contacts, goodwill, and security for its clients by remaining in the same location. There is now, therefore, a need to purchase the property.
Potential long term impact of the project to purchase its own facility includes: reassurance that the repairs and upgrades made to the building for it to be an appropriate shelter facility continue to benefit clients while contributing to the sustainability of the organization; consolidating upgrades and repairs as a capital asset to increase the overall financial standing of the organization, while enabling more permanent rehabilitation and recovery services for its clients.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
