25 000 more packages for vulnerable Bajans

By the end of this week it is expected that over 85,000 care packages will have been delivered to the most vulnerable in society.

That figure was disclosed by Minister of Empowerment and Elder Affairs, Cynthia Forde this afternoon when debate on the Appropriation Bill, 2021, continued in the House of Assembly.

In January, Government announced plans to deliver 60, 000 care packages as part of efforts to assist families most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. They were to be delivered during the February 3-17 lockdown period.

However, Forde said that number had been easily surpassed as Government had extended the timeline of the programme.

“We will conclude this week the 85 000 care packages that this Government has extended to the people of Barbados who were most in need. Everybody did not get but with God’s help we will be able to reach others because Rome was not built in a day,” Forde said.

The minister praised the work of the Welfare Department during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying it had been operating under significant strain.

She said the just over $86 million allocated to her ministry for the next financial year – the highest amount ever voted – would go a long way in ensuring that department could continue to service the needs of those less privileged.

“I must tell you those numbers have risen within the last year and a half. We are almost up to 3700 people who were recipients of food at one point, they get house rent paid because there were so many evictions during the period and the Welfare Department has come in to assist. There were grants for school when we opened in September, utility bills and even burials.

“That department has been working assiduously. Yes, we have loopholes like any other institution but our plan going forward in this financial year is to be able to look at the reformation and the pulling together of all of the threads in social work in our ministry that will help us to have one body overseeing all of it,” Forde pointed out. (RB)