Accountants donate to Adopt-a-Family scheme

Government’s Adopt-a-Family programme received a $15, 000 boost, as Minister in the Ministry of Finance Minister Ryan Straughn promised more social protection programmes to help vulnerable Barbadians in the coming months.

He gave the assurance as the president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados (ICAB), Lydia McCollin, donated the money at Government Headquarters, pointing out that it was the association’s charitable donation this year from its week of activities in November.

“We thought that the Adopt-a-Family programme was the ideal thing for us to donate to this year, especially coming around Christmas when people expect to celebrate more within their families,” said McCollin.

In accepting the donation, Straughn said: “It really does mean a lot to the people as Government seeks to ensure that we enhance our social protection programmes at a time that is so critical.”

Stating that he was looking forward to 2021 with “a little more optimism” due to the availability of COVID-19 vaccines, Straughn said, “we feel confident we are on the right path to get back to as close to normality as possible.”

But he noted that in the interim, Government would do what it could to help the most vulnerable.

Pointing to the latest $10 million top up of the initial $10 million Adopt-a-Family programme, which began in the height of the pandemic, Straughn said the ICAB donation would go a long way.

The Adopt-a-Family programme is scheduled to run until the end of March next year. Under the social protection scheme, eligible families are given $600 per month. With the recent injection of funds from Government it has been extended to allow beneficiaries access to land for the purpose of rearing Black Belly Sheep and other livestock.

The programme was initially designed to target some 1,500 vulnerable families, but that number was more than doubled by September to just over 3,440, and some close to $3.5 million was further raised by that time.

Straughn said: “As we go deeper and deeper into the pandemic, we anticipate that there may be more social protection mechanisms which the Government may have to roll out. But we are optimistic that 2021 will bring a different space with respect to the management of the pandemic.”

Thanking all those who have been providing assistance so far, Straughn said it was critical for Government to continue to work closely with individuals and civil society organizations in making sure that “people do not fall through the cracks”.

“Rest assured that we will continue to manage the public health side of it very fiercely to ensure that we protect the lives of Barbadians and to ensure livelihoods over the short-to-medium-term as well can be enhanced as we continue to generate as much activity domestically to enable us to see a brighter 2021,” said Straughn.

Straughn, who defended the programme’s transparency, was not in a position to say exactly how many individuals have been assisted to date, but said “more and more people are coming on as we speak”.
(MM)