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Aug 30, 2015 APNU Column, Features / Columnists
(Excerpt from an address to the 11th Parliament by Hon. Volda Lawrence, Minister of Social Protection)
The President, in his Address to the 11th Parliament alluded to the pauperisation of our nation and the intention of introducing social policies that will enhance the safety net for those in need of support, inclusive of better pensions for the elderly and increases in public assistance to support poor families.
The President also mentioned the Government’s intention to harness and develop the creative energies of our people and support the development of our women and youth through the creation of jobs and educational opportunities in an effort to stem this crisis of poverty.
The Ministry of Social Protection has begun the task of restructuring and strengthening the various departments, filling long outstanding vacancies and prioritising our programmes; reviewing the programmes offered by our departments, such as the Women’s Institute, the Women of Worth, the Trafficking in Persons Department, the Co-ops Unit and the Board of Industrial Training (BIT).
The Ministry is working to establish two new units, namely a public relations department and a statistical department. The time has come for the public to be kept informed of the work and assistance offered by the Ministry, notwithstanding the need to base our programmes on information and transparency.
Our children’s homes will be refurbished to ensure that our babies are placed in a homely setting and not one that upon your visit, will move you to tears. The same is anticipated for our indigent home which needs to be demolished. The Palms, our geriatric facility, needs to be rebuilt. To erect a new building will be costly, and we certainly do not have that money to pursue this at this time.However, it does not mean that we must not plan to do so when the funds are available.
The Ministry is committed to the re-opening of a Legal Aid Clinic in the town of Linden and to building a halfway home for women. It is our intention to ensure that those persons who seek shelter at our various homes are assessed and given second chances through the use of the Hugo Chávez Centre.
The Ministry will be opening a probation and child welfare office on the East Bank of Demerara. This will facilitate our citizens who reside on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway and those who live on the East Bank of Demerara. Presently the Ministry is exploring the establishment of a children’s home in the township of Linden. It is important that our children who are taken off of the streets or who come in contact with the law, have an alternative other than police stations, where there are no adequate provisions for them.
The Ministry of Social Protection is also looking at new methods of payment to pensioners and public assistance recipients. Everyone is familiar with what takes place every month at various Post Offices across the country.
The despicable conditions under which our womenfolk exist, the daily struggles they face in an attempt to combat domestic abuse, trafficking in persons, and the dire financial constraints which leave them at the mercy of the unscrupulous exploiters, have become increasingly clear and worrying.
In the same vein, we witness the callous way in which some of our elderly are treated and how deprived they are of some of the social amenities. Our youths are just as vulnerable, and it is lamentable to see them sitting idly at the street corners. As the President stated, charitable handouts would not resolve this situation; the youths need to be mobilised for entrepreneurial purposes and policies need to be implemented for the development of our womenfolk and the elderly.
Our commitment and support to families is high on our agenda. However, notwithstanding the aforementioned, the Ministry is forging ahead to have a national mapping of our social issues, to prepare a strategy to address these issues and also to develop a plan of action with our national stakeholders.
The President has intimated the need for a vibrant labour movement which would engender social security, thus providing for effective governance and national development. Most are aware of the rifts that have led to social conflicts resulting in a lessening of productivity. Our human resources are the source of our empowerment. All need to be involved.
Our labour must be organised for social good. Our workers’ needs must be fully addressed to avoid erosion of their real wages, and one step in facilitating this is the re-establishment of cordial relationships with our Trade Unions. We cannot divorce them from the social process, thus the intention to revise relevant labour legislation and to support all legally constituted and functioning Trade Unions, so that they can better represent our workers.
The Ministry has already removed the ban on the visitation and inspection by labour officers to places of employment. The Ministry of Social Protection is committed to both employer and employee. It goes without saying that a happy worker, well represented and protected, will be a productive worker. We believe that, once families are adequately supported, the task of social protection becomes easier, and our country certainly needs this kind of worker and family to ensure its viability and social aggrandisement.
Social Protection is often equated with social justice, and this administration will work fervently to bridge the divides among gender, people living and working in the hinterland and coast, ethnic groups and the poor, to ensure equitable access to opportunities for development.
Some of the key areas of focus will be equitable access to health care, education, housing and job opportunities. These efforts will also fall under the much anticipated social compact that will be birthed from an inclusionary process to charter the course for Guyana for the next five years. On this course, Guyana will need the participation of every man and woman, boy and girl.
The country can ill afford the consequences of violence, abuse in its many forms, illiteracy, school drop outs, teenage pregnancy, suicide, poverty and dysfunctional families, to name a few. We, in the social protection sector, therefore, commit to the task of rebuilding Guyana to a state where every citizen will feel socially protected, economically empowered and motivated into productivity.
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