Robert Ives, a parishioners of St Edmund?s, Loughton, sadly died of prostate cancer in December 2004.  He left a sizeable donation to the Claretians in his will, which was paid in the summer of 2005.  The money was used to build a school in San Isidro ? a relatively new and very poor village for immigrant plantation workers.  The school, once completed, consisted of two simple wooden buildings with a palm leaf roof, and each building contained two classrooms.  Fr. John O'Byrne, who was visiting Belize at the time, performed a blessing at the opening ceremony prepared by staff and pupils.  Initially, the school had no fittings, but because of a further generous donation of furniture by a school in Leyton, each child was able to be supplied with a desk and chair.

The school is a marvellous fulfilment of a dream Robert and his widow Christine had for many years, to do something for poor and underprivileged children in the Third World.  It is an especially fitting achievement as Robert himself worked in the field of education for over thirty years.  Robert?s surviving family are greatly consoled by the existence of the school, and the knowledge of the good it will do, not only for the children, but also for the whole community in San Isidro.