Friday, November 13, 2015. BMG: The Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) is a non-governmental organization that works to improve lives and protect the environment, as well as respond to natural disasters in Latin America and the Caribbean. 
A press release from PADF issued today, indicates that it has made a donation of technological equipment, tools and software to the University of Belize (UB), valued at US $4,000 to improve the University’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Center.
This donation comes on UB’s second Annual Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Day and was made possible through the support of the Republic of China, under a project named: “Community Preparedness and Resilience: Community-Based Approaches to Disaster Preparedness and Climate Change Adaptation in Belize.”
Students from UB had already done some GPS tracking work with PADF back in October to develop resource maps for Hopkins and Dangriga town and help mitigate erosion problems.
Minerva Pinelo, PADF project director in Belize, said that PADF is committed to supporting UB’s goal of expanding its GIS center and is happy to provide opportunities for students to participate in field work, which will contribute to the joint efforts in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.
The donation included: A platform software upgrade (ArcGIS Online Level 2), 5 Samsung Galaxy Tablets, 5 Garmin GPS units, 3 fiberglass measuring tapes, 3 metric fabric diameter tapes, 1 pruner/saw package.