Salima Ellyse Barrow

Salima Ellyse Barrow was born in Savannah, Georgia, USA but grew up in Belize City, Belize from the age of three months. She completed her primary school education at Hummingbird Elementary School and is currently an honour student in her final year of high school at Saint Catherine Academy.
 

Salima is a well-rounded person who engages in a variety of extra-curricular activities ranging from sports, music and arts and craft to volunteerism and philanthropy. She is a member of her school’s robotics club and the philosophy club, was an avid tennis player and is on her school’s volleyball team. In 2019, she was selected as a member of the Belize National Under-16 Girls Volleyball team that won the silver medal in a Central American tournament held in Costa Rica. Her musical instruments of choice are the piano, guitar, ukulele and drums. She has completed music competency examinations from the UK-based Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and received awards of merit and distinction.  
 

Salima has an impressive record of volunteerism and philanthropy. Her first philanthropic undertaking was at the tender age of seven. Influenced by her mother’s battle with Stage 3 breast cancer, she established Salima’s Limeaide Stand (SLS) in October, 2012, with the goal of raising funds to assist children with cancer. Her efforts so inspired her 6 and 7 year old classmates that by November, 2012 SLS had evolved into a larger group called Children Helping Children. Over a four year period, Salima’s Limeaide Stand and Children Helping Children raised over $10,000 that was donated to the Belize Cancer Society and the Dangriga Cancer Center to support their pediatric programmes. Her latest philanthropic venture is the Dream Up Campaign, which focuses on the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young girls. Through donations she was able to assemble and distribute 400 personal hygiene packages to girls in rural areas in Belize.  
 

In 2014, Salima was an ambassador for the “No to Offshore Drilling” campaign by the Belizean non-governmental conservation organization, OCEANA. The campaign successfully lobbied the Government of Belize to implement legislation to stop offshore exploration in Belize. Having a keen interest in sustainable development and conservation, she was recruited by Oceana in 2019 as an ambassador for their 12 Days of Christmas campaign against single use plastic food items.
 

One of Salima’s main hobbies is travelling. She loves the outdoors, is a water enthusiast and despite a rigorous academic schedule and her many areas of involvement, Salima still finds time to be a peer helper and mentor to the children in her neighborhood.