MP sets up youth jobs skill fund

Declaring his concern over unemployed young people gone astray in his constituency, Christ Church East MP Wilfred Abrahams has launched an “empowerment” drive to help those “who can still be saved”.

He set up a special fund to assist youth interested in acquiring new skills and qualifications, the energy and water resources Minister told a branch meeting at the St. Christopher Primary School Sunday evening.

The MP revealed that so far, over $10,000 in pledges had already been made and he was hoping to attract more as the need arise, adding that he was placing most of his energy for 2020 toward empowering people.

Abrahams said: “If you have zero in the certificate and qualification column, come. I will help you.

“We are going to check these courses and you have to be doing something that gives you or yields some certification that actually advances you somewhere.

“If it is cosmetology, it has to be somebody who is registered that you can put it up and start your business.

“I am happy to pay for anybody who does not have a CXC to do mathematics or English at the O level institute or at Foundation School or wherever.”

As rising violent crime continues to stretch into a new year, Abrahams said he was tired of going to the funerals of young people in his constituency but admitted that some youth are simply “beyond salvation”.

He said: “There are some people who can be saved and to be honest there are some people who are beyond salvation.

“It is probably not the politically correct thing to say, but there are some people who we can’t reach and the law will have to deal with them.”

But he declared: “But for all of the rest, for those who we see starting to deviate, for those people we see starting to hang with bad company, for those people who we are starting to see get hopeless because things are not working out for them, it is our duty to step in and help those people.”

During a recent constituency clinic, Abrahams said, many people in Christ Church East districts lacked many basic tools to be gainfully employed.

He told constituents: “There is a disconnect between those who know in Barbados and those who don’t know and sometimes people are in the position they are in, not because they don’t have the skill to take themselves further but because they don’t actually know some of the things that we know.”

Stressing the venture was not political, Abrahams urged constituency leaders to identify the most vulnerable in the constituency and help them.

He also appealed to those who were empowered by his constituency office and those who have “good” jobs to contribute to the fund and lend their expertise.

Abrahams promised: “At our next branch meeting, we will have somebody explaining some of the big mistakes you make when going for a job interview. We will explain how to present yourselves during a job interview, what your CV should look like, and the dangers of social media.”

The MP also had a stern warning for people who are interested in wasting his time as he insisted he was only interested in addressing the needs of those truly in need of help.

He said: “There are some deadbeat people out there who are intent on wasting your time and you have to call it as you see it.

“This year is the year of empowerment and I am trying to help everybody who is trying to help themselves.

“If you are not trying to help yourselves, don’t come and waste my time.

“I am probably going to hear all about myself having said that, but sometimes you have to call it as you see it.