The Jasmine Alert Program is in its 4 year, and it's pioneer Patrick Menzies launched to activate the law enforcement might by releasing urgent bulletins to the nation for missing children. The Jasmine Alert was launched in 2012 in memory of Jasmine Lowe, who was brutally murdered in Cayo after being missing for several days.
But the Jasmine Alert Program has been operating barebones. It’s managers have run out of funding, and donors have been hard to come by. So, Executive Director Patrick Menzies is launching a fundraiser which he hopes you will buy into for a very important service which might be slowly withering.
He talked about this fundraiser with us tomorrow:
Patrick Menzies - Executive Director, Jasmine Alert
"The Jasmine Alert Programme started in July 31st 2012 and we had some help first few months from a few companies and that died off after 6 months. We have two individuals who have helped us off and on for a little while after but that’s about it. This fund raiser we are doing is our first national fund raiser. We're doing a motorcycle raffle with Universal Hardware from Spanish Lookout. They have given us a very good deal to help us with the motorcycle situation. And we're offering 1,000 tickets maximum and they are 10 dollars apiece and we have them in many of the major pharmacies around the country. And so we are asking you to go and buy a ticket, the reason being is because we have two sides; one our operational cost is more than we can really handle honestly, we're down to minimum staff. I had 5 employees one time and then we are down to two of us to run the system. Also, besides operational, we have on the 16th of March, Amber Alert training in Houston by the Houston Regional Amber Alert office. And so we need to be trained there, they train both law enforcement and civilians and so our staff and one of the cops are going there for training and after that we're introducing Sergeant Carcamo, the head of the police side here in Belize to the Lieutenant running the system in Houston. So we're making that connection with the counterparts in Houston and that's the main reason why we are doing the fundraiser."
According to Menzies, to properly run the Jasmine Alert Program, he needs funding of 150 thousand dollars. He says that he’s been paying for it mostly out of pocket, and it’s been a huge strain.
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