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Monica Bodden reporting
This morning the Belize Electricity Limited presented 20 Golden Citizens from Belize City with awards for payment of one full year's worth of electricity.

Hector Vallejo - Customer Care Rep.
"We are here this morning to present 20 golden citizens from Belize City with award for payment of one year full worth of electricity courtesy of BEL. These citizens are here only representing a fraction of the 160 golden citizens across the country who are being randomly selected to receive this special gift. BEL's golden citizen bill pay program is one of several initiatives through which the company fulfills its new mission to provide reliable electricity at the lowest sustainable cost to stimulate national development and improve the quality of life in Belize. We are also proud to introduce this program publicly as one that has evolved like many others out of our employees to reach out in meaningful ways to make a difference in others in the community we serve."

"BEL employees who interact with customers on a daily basis have come to see the various challenging circumstances being face by some of our golden citizen when trying to meet or make payment of their electricity bills."

In 2012 BEL launched its Golden Citizens Bill Pay Program after its customer service employees identified the various challenging circumstances that these Golden Citizens are faced with when trying to meet or make payments of their electricity bills. An inspiring story was shared at today's event, which was considered the catalyst for the program.

Hector Vallejo - Customer Care Rep.
"An inspiring incident that occurred in our customer care department in 2011 was the catalyst for this program. In 2011 a 83 year old lady visited our office to pay her electricity bill as her account has been disconnected for non-payment and not having paid her bill for some time. This senior citizen lives alone at her home that isn't in such a good shape. To make matters worse she had no source of income and had to walk on a daily basis to the Mercy Clinic. At one point in 2010 she even had to sell a piece of her property to able to meet her outstanding utility bills. On the day she walked into our office, one of our employees Mrs. Juliet Jerez took it upon herself not to only pay the customer outstanding bill but also drove her home and gave her some additional cash for bus transportation so she wouldn't ne able to walk to the Mercy Clinic. After telling the story to her colleagues they all agree to contribute on a monthly basis and entire year to pay this customer's bill and it was so that the program came to fruition."

Awardees are selected by BEL's Social Club Committee based on a list of criteria. Individuals must be 65 or older and registered as a Golden Citizen with BEL. They must also hold an active electricity account billed under the social rate category, which means they are using 60 kilowatt hours or less electricity per month.