BELMOPAN, Belize – SIXTY-FOUR Belizean families from the Corozal District that were affected by the passage of Hurricane Dean are set to benefit from the European Union’s (EU) ninth Economic Development Fund, which amounts to 600 000 Euros.

According to Caribbean Net News, 44 families would receive new homes while 20 would receive construction materials to repair their homes.

The housing initiative is a part of a larger EU reconstruction and rehabilitation project, which aims to restore the physical infrastructure, rehabilitate the agricultural systems and create employment and generate income for families and villages affected by the Category Five Storm that swept over Belize in August 2007.

Additionally, the project will also provide appropriate housing to rural poor families, improve physical and institutional capacity for hurricane-vulnerable villages and create efficient, productive and competitive small, medium and micro enterprises of rural groups and communities.

The passage of Hurricane Dean damaged 335 houses in the rural Corozal District, leaving 1 650 persons homeless and 3 000 labourers in the sugar cane and papaya industry unemployed.