Women in need of welfare services ‘left out’

Many women are being deprived of assistance by the closure of the Welfare Department during the ongoing COVID-19 emergency, President of the National Organization of Women, Marsha Hinds, has declared.

A mother was sent to Welfare Department to seek assistance after being advised by the HOPE hotline to do so, but she was informed that she would have to return in two weeks time, she said.

Hinds told Barbados TODAY that NOW has been receiving several calls from mothers asking for help in meeting basic needs.

The women’s affairs advocate said: “I was the most surprised to find out the Welfare Department is not accepting people. I feel that if you have a list of essential services, social workers at the Welfare Department and child care officers at the Child Care Board have to be on that list.

“I honestly do not understand how the Welfare Department is not classified as an essential service. Those officers should be point persons for people to call in and say I am having a real challenge feeding my children.

“I understand that the medical personnel have to do what they have to to protect the island health wise, but we also have to make sure that we are not creating vulnerabilities and instabilities in the social network of Barbados.

“So it is very alarming and concerning that at this time women are being turned away from the Welfare Department when they are trying to access things as simple as rice, flour and sugar.”

She said that as a result of heavy job losses, particularly in the hospitality industry, NOW’s pantry is now almost bare after assisting affected families in recent weeks.

She blamed the abrupt shutdown for preventing NOW from replenishing its stocks.

Hinds said: “The way that the shutdown was done, we were caught off guard. If you know that you are moving into a shutdown with five days notice there are certain items that you start to stock pile to be able to facilitate women in being able to at least cook some rice, they can make bakes, get some milk that can be used with cereal.

“We would have wanted to help some people who run out of food the first week with at least a second week of supplies but we are not able to do that because we were caught completely off guard.”

The NOW president suggested decision-makers keep in mind that while several men who are now on the breadline may be unable to provide basic necessities for their children; many women who head households are also struggling to make ends meet.

“And a lot of the families who are most vulnerable are the ones who are weekly paid workers, they don’t normally do monthly shopping. So with the curfew period of 14 days while like I say you understand it from the health professionals, you have people with a five or six day supply of food who are now being asked to stay inside for fourteen days,” Hinds said.

“And we all know that children eat more when they are on vacation. You don’t have any school meals support. Some children would have been on breakfast programmes at their schools and all of them are now at home.”

She acknowledged that while she was aware that Government, through its social care ministry, handed out about 3,000 food hampers in communities across the island, she does not believe that those whom she termed “newly vulnerable” people were reached.

She also indicated that those who would have been able to dip into their savings to buy large quantities of food may not understand the plight of others struggling to survive on a weekly wage.

Said Hinds: “Before women would have been able to get by from week to week with their wage and the child’s father maintenance cheque. But now with all of that gone in the blink of an eye, how do they survive? So the question is how are you working with community leaders to be able to identify those individuals to make sure that they can get assistance?

“Some people might say let the social services work and look at what the people trying to do and that is fine. But if you don’t look at the basic need of food you are creating other instabilities in society.”

Barbados TODAY has sought comment from Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Cynthia Forde.
anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb