Government has granted permission to the Barbados Children’s Trust to build a home for 11 to 18-year-olds.
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley made the announcement on Wednesday at the unveiling of plaques at the Nightengale Children’s Home in Black Rock, St Michael. She disclosed that the new home will be built at Bullen, St James on the property known as the Bullen Agricultural Station.
“We will have housing, but then a special acreage will be dedicated to persons between the ages of 11 and 18,” Mottley said.
Director of the Barbados Children’s Trust, Yvonne Brewer, said the groundbreaking ceremony for the new facility specifically designed to take adolescents into adulthood, has been scheduled for next month. She said construction is expected to be completed in April 2024.
“When they leave that facility they will be ready for the workplace. They will become valuable members in the society of Barbados, ready to get out there and create the future,” she said.
Brewer explained that in 2010 the Barbados Children’s Trust partnered with the Child Care Board to create the village at Nightengale where children from birth to age 11 in residential care would be in a safe and nurturing environment which would enable them to grow and become all that they could be.
She noted that over a 12-year period, the construction of new buildings and refurbishing of older ones at Nightengale to make them fit for purpose, cost over $20 million which was donated by “very generous people”.
“What you see here today is the realisation of our vision,” Brewer said, adding that a decision was made on Tuesday for the Trust to purchase a bus to transport the children to and from the Nightengale Home.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mottley thanked the Trust for spearheading the project to make the residential home a comfortable and fulfilling environment for the children and staff, at a time when Government could do no more than pay salaries and service debt.
Acknowledging that it takes a village to raise a child, Mottley appealed to Barbadians to donate to projects that would benefit the nation’s children.
She said it is a fact that while the majority of children are fortunate to be taken care of by their family and loved ones, there are others whose circumstances are different.
“I am not asking only for money, but I am going to start there because Barbadians in my view as a country of 56 years old, we need to develop a culture of giving back at all levels. Charitable donations tend to be seen as something that others would do, but charity must start at home,” Mottley said.
She added: “I am going to ask the Minister of the Third Sector Colin Jordan to ensure that we undertake a public education programme to be able to share with Barbadians how best they can, but also benefit from what they do, in order to be able to make that defining difference through giving back.
“If you can’t give money, then I come to the next thing, to give time because it is not always that we can give cash. Time matters in terms of those who can make a difference in mentoring these kids, time matters in terms of the skills that you can impart to them.”
The plagues unveiled will be placed on the various buildings at the village.
The Crawford Contact and Family Centre has been named after former Director of the Child Care Board Joan Crawford. Formerly known as the Nightengale Day Care, the Aunty Brewer’s Early Years Centre has been named after Director of the Children’s Trust Yvonne Brewer.
Shelly’s Ann Cottage has been named in memory of Shelly Ann Murray who was one of the differently-abled residents of the Violet Gittens Home who was “near and dear to the hearts of the Barbados Children’s Trust”.
