Culture minister praises community spirit behind We Gatherin’ initiative

The minister with responsibility for culture has praised the teamwork and community involvement that made the We Gatherin’ initiative a success, as the programme concluded with a reception at Ilaro Court on Sunday night.

Senator Shantal Munro-Knight said reminding Barbadians of what has made them great as a people was among the initiative’s key goals.

She said: “We Gatherin’ started off as an initiative in which we wanted to do three things. We wanted to allow Barbadians to recall those things that we once treasured within our communities and within our parish. We wanted people to be able to reconnect. We wanted people to value those things, whether it was about re-energising traditions, remembering places or connecting with neighbours.”

Acknowledging the efforts of the We Gatherin’ secretariat, she added: “It was about celebration that was to be grounded in our national identity, in ourselves, in our communities, and I believe that we have done so successfully and we have done so based on your very hard efforts and hard work.”

Small businesses and entrepreneurs were prioritised throughout the activities.

“That was one of the very critical things,” she noted. “We were able to dig down within communities and make sure that those persons were able to benefit from We Gatherin’.”

Munro-Knight also emphasised the importance of accountability in measuring the programme’s impact. “We have committed ourselves to making sure that we will be able to give to you and to give to the nation a level of accountability; so that right now the team is working on a monitoring evaluation approach which will help us to be able to very concretely identify those initiatives and those things that we set ourselves up at the very front, the extent to which we have been successful in achieving that.”

Praising the team for working beyond the call of duty, the senator said: “This is essentially what We Gatherin’  is. Barbadians who sacrificed, like all of you have, whether you worked at the level of the Parish Organising Committee, whether you worked with us as service providers, whether you were part of the media.”

The minister announced that recommendations would be made to Cabinet to retain “those initiatives that we would want to stay on the calendar permanently.”

Awards were presented to members of the We Gatherin’ secretariat and its network of partners. (STT)