WELFARE OF THE POOR, ELDERLY AND DISABLED SAFEGUARDED

By: ALECIA SMITH

Minister of Labour and Social Security, Hon. Pearnel Charles (at podium), addressing the National Productivity Awareness Week seminar, held on November 11 at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston. At the head table (from left) are: Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Alvin McIntosh and Researcher at the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in Vienna, Austria, Dr. Anders Isaksson.

During 2009, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, remained resolute in safeguarding the welfare of the poor, the young, the elderly and the disabled, who are in need of the social protection programmes provided by the Ministry.

The Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), which is the focal point of the Ministry’s social safety net, with over 350,000 beneficiaries, was further enhanced throughout the year.

An integral component of PATH, the Steps to Work Programme, was officially launched on Tuesday, November 10, at the St. Gabriel’s Anglican Church Hall in May Pen, Clarendon.

Minister of Labour and Social Security, Hon. Pearnel Charles, who was at the launch, informed that approximately 500 clients had been exposed to readiness training provided by the HEART Trust/NTA.

Implemented in 2008 through US$2.14 million in funding from the World Bank, the project, which targets working age Jamaicans from households, who benefit from PATH, is currently being piloted in Kingston, St. Andrew, Clarendon, Manchester, Trelawny and St. James.

The aim is to provide eligible PATH beneficiaries with the necessary training, entrepreneurial and job readiness skills to become self-sufficient so that they no longer require state assistance. Persons also receive loans to start micro businesses.

The Ministry has already provided work experience for 40 persons, while 45 small scale poultry farmers and entrepreneurs have received start-up grants, and another 82 are being processed to receive grants. In addition, 1,500 of 5,000 persons screened were referred to partner agencies and are in various stages of receiving assistance.

Children from PATH-dependent households also benefitted, with more than 100 youngsters attending a summer camp in Albert Town, Trelawny in August, where they received training in vocational skills, remedial education, behaviour modification and sports.

It is projected that by the year 2010, approximately 4,000 persons will benefit from interventions under the programme.

Additionally, in September, the Ministry officially launched the ‘We Need to Know’ public education campaign, which encourages compliance among the beneficiaries of PATH.

The campaign sought to ensure that parents or guardians of PATH beneficiaries who have started primary school, junior high, high school, or who have changed schools, inform the Ministry’s parish office. Failure to do this would result in the benefits being discontinued.

It also aimed to get parents and guardians, who fall under the PATH programme, to register their children attending school for the first time; and to impress upon secondary-level students the need for them to be aware of the new post-secondary initiative, whereby PATH students who have applied and are accepted in a post-secondary institution are given a one-time payment of $15,000.

Speaking at the official launch, held at the Papine High School in Kingston, on September 29, State Minister in the Labour and Social Security Ministry, Hon. Andrew Gallimore, informed that the PATH programme has a budget of some $3 billion this year, and that 80 per cent of that amount will be spent on children who are going to primary and secondary schools.

Reducing Child Labour

The Ministry, during the year, further cemented its commitment to reducing child labour, with the launch and signing of an agreement for a three-year US$1 million child labour project, TACKLE, at the Terra Nova Hotel, in Kingston, on February 5.

“We at the Ministry of Labour are concerned about under aged children who are sent out by their parents to work fulltime…those who are advised that they are now 12 years old and they should go and work. It must stop now,” said Portfolio Minister Charles.

Some key objectives of the TACKLE project are: the reduction of poverty by providing access to basic education and skills training; and strengthening the capacity of local authorities to implement and enforce measures to tackle child labour.

TACKLE is being implemented under the auspices of the International Labour Organization (ILO), with financial support from the European Commission, and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, including Jamaica.

In 2000, the Government of Jamaica in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO)/International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) implemented a country programme to progressively reduce and eliminate child labour in Jamaica.

Training Opportunities

Despite the damning effects of the global economic meltdown, namely widespread job losses, the Ministry sought to train approximately 10,000 young persons through its $47 million Special Youth Employment and Training (SYEAT) project, over a four year period in preparation for opportunities that may arise during and in the aftermath of the continuing crisis.

An initiative of Minister Charles, the project, which was launched in October 2008, aims to provide on-the-job training for young people islandwide, who are between 18 and 25 years of age, and possess three or fewer Caribbean Examination Council (CXC)/Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) subjects, who are either high school drop-outs or unemployed.

It is a strategy to further the national policy of human resource development, where young workers are integrated into the labour market through apprenticeship arrangements.

The project, for which the one-year pilot phase is drawing to a close, currently has approximately 200 trainees participating, who are attached to some 40 private and public sector organisations.

Seniors Get Attention

In terms of the Ministry’s work with senior citizens this year, 19 seniors benefitted from a computer introduction course, which was offered by the Manchester Parish Library.

A similar group of senior citizens in Clarendon graduated from the computer course in August.

Minister Charles, in a message, said that Government had established some new initiatives geared toward senior citizens.

“We recently established the Special Anniversary Benefit, for which persons born between 1906 and 1908 are eligible.  We have also been on a drive to identify centenarians, as we seek to recognise and show gratitude to these persons who have given a lifetime to the development of Jamaica,” he said.

Further, the Kingston and St. Andrew Chapter of the Jamaica Government Pensioners’ Association was launched in June, bringing the total number of branches islandwide to five. There are four other chapters of the association in St. Catherine, Manchester, St. James and Clarendon.

Attention to the Disabled

Persons living with disabilities were also assisted through the interventions of the Ministry this year. In August, the Ministry organised as series of ‘Economic Empowerment Seminars’, targeted at disabled persons, who have received Government grants to operate small businesses.

Meisha Grant (left) of the Jamaica Association for the Deaf (JAD), enjoying a conversation in sign language with trainee and member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) Corporal Bryan Answer (right), while fellow trainee, Corporal Courtney Nugent (2nd right) and Windel Grant (2nd left) of the JAD, share the moment. Occasion was the March 11, official launch of Sign Language Training for the Testing and Certification of Deaf Drivers at the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) in Kingston.

Mr. Gallimore informed that of the $15 million granted for the programme, $5 million would go towards adaptive aids such as eye glasses, hearing aids or prosthesis. The remaining $10 million, he said, would enable them to start their own small businesses, so they could become more independent and generate their own small cash flow.

In the ensuing month, an adult education programme, also for persons with disabilities, offered by the Combined Disabilities Association (CDA), was launched at the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) in Kingston.

Some $2.5 million was provided by the Jamaica National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) classes in English Language, Mathematics and Principles of Business; the purchase books and other materials; remunerate teachers; and assist unemployed persons and low-income earners with transportation costs.

Also, as part of the initiative of the Government to enable deaf persons to obtain driver’s licences, 24 members of the Island Traffic Authority and the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), completed a month-long introductory course in Jamaican Sign Language and Deaf Culture in April.

The training, which was facilitated by the Jamaica Association for the Deaf (JAD), aimed to sufficiently equip the members with the requisite skills to communicate with deaf drivers, who are now able to access driver’s licences.

Following the feat of the special Olympians World Winter Games, held in Boise, Idaho, in the United States of America, Mr. Gallimore praised the sportsmen and women for their achievements, during a luncheon in their honour, on February 26, at the Alhambra Inn hotel, in Kingston.

Some 18 special Olympians and five coaches went to the World Winter Games from February 7 to 13. They won five medals - two gold, one silver and two bronze - competing in floor hockey and speed-skating events.