New children’s facility coming

Barbados will soon have a new state-of-the-art children’s home.

On Friday, Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Kirk Humphrey announced that the home is being constructed by the Barbados Children’s Trust at Bullens, St James.

“They had asked for a few acres and has been given those few acres to build a new home. It will house the children who are currently held now in the building once called Farrs, in St Peter. And it would also have training and other facilities.

“It will be a new state-of-the-art facility for children in Barbados and I want to thank the Barbados Children’s Trust for the work that they did at Nightengale as well. We were to officially open that building two weeks ago, but that has been delayed,” he said.

Speaking during an event at the Warrens offices to launch Child Month 2022, the minister also revealed that conversations have been ongoing, though not solid, regarding the possibility of repurposing the old building at Farrs, to house persons with disabilities.

Humphrey also used the opportunity to call on Barbadians to volunteer to become foster parents. He said while all persons who volunteer must undergo necessary screening, the Child Care Board (CCB) is always in need of foster parents on whom they could call.

The minister also indicated that Cabinet and his Ministry have been engaging in discussions regarding establishing a national parenting programme to offer needed support to parents.

Additionally, Humphrey made an appeal to families in a position to provide support to other households, to do so.

“We are going to make an official programme of it. We are going to be encouraging families to come forward and support other families. This does not necessarily mean financially, though that would be nice. It also means taking the children out, expose the children to something that they probably would not have been exposed to, positive of course,” he said.

Throughout May, the CCB will be hosting a number of activities to heighten public awareness regarding its work and mandate.

Some of the activities include daily devotions, a National Children’s Service at St Leonard’s Anglican on May 1, open days at Government Day Nurseries from May 9 to 27 and a virtual children’s webinar for primary and secondary schools on May 27. (AH)