-by Shamiah Grant
Residents of Region Ten were able to resolve a range of social welfare and family support issues during Tuesday’s outreach led by Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo.
Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr. Vindhya Persaud, says the initiative brought key services directly to the people.
From pension applications to skills training and child protection, the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security says it responded to a wide cross-section of concerns raised by residents during the outreach. Minister Dr. Vindhya Persaud said the ministry also assisted persons seeking old-age pensions, public assistance, permanent disability grants and access to free training programmes.
“We have had the opportunity to directly interface with persons and to resolve and address their concerns on the ground. Ensuring people got signed on to free training programmes or technical vocational training programmes like the Women’s innovation investment network where there was great interest also included in that the UK city guilds training Programme for carpentry, plumbing and wielding and what people would have being very interested in would have being garment construction.” she said.
Child protection was also a key focus of the outreach. Dr. Persaud said residents benefited from face-to-face support, with the ministry’s senior team available to respond to concerns as they arose.
“Then there were persons looking at child protection issues the director of child protection agency was on the ground herself and in fact we had a senior team with the permanent secretary and the heads of most units here so that decisions was able to be made right here in Region Ten,”the minister added.
She added that taking Government services directly to communities is helping to remove barriers to access while ensuring residents receive timely assistance.