A 300-bed homeless shelter at Onverwagt, West Berbice is to be completed this year, according to Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh.
During the presentation of the national budget on Monday, Singh described the facility as a residential centre for rehabilitation and reintegration. The government had announced the project two years ago, saying that the facility was intended for street dwellers, in order to provide them with medical and material support.
Singh noted that the Night Shelter’s capacity has been expanded to care for 250 persons as opposed to the 60 persons it had initially catered for. The Night Shelter provides meals, medical assistance and accommodation on a 24-hour basis.
Meanwhile, Singh said that financial support in the form of monthly old age pension benefited over 42,000 pensioners while subsidised water payments were afforded to qualified pensioners to the tune of $3.6 billion. This year, Singh said, efforts will be placed on providing more opportunities for improving the physical and social well-being of the elderly in social services and health care in addition to the continued financial support in the form of old age pensions and water payments subsidies.
He noted that rehabilitation works to the physical infrastructure of the Palms Geriatric Institution is ongoing. He said that a newly-constructed recreation facility at the institution is operational with a reading room, exercise room and canteen services to improve the life of the residents.
Further, Singh also noted that approximately 9,000 persons received monthly support through the public assistance programme, which targeted cases of temporarily incapacitated individuals. Critical to the reduction in the level of the vulnerability of the disadvantaged, he said, is the establishment of mechanisms geared to support the provision of employment opportunities. In this regard, he cited the Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency’s online vacancy registration service, which allows for automated registration and employment matching.
Amerindians, Singh said, continue to benefit from the security of land tenure through the government’s ongoing land titling programme. He said that in 2010, 11 villages had land titles issued while under the Amerindian Development Fund (ADF) $197.9 million was provided for projects and programmes arising from community plans. During this year, land titles will be issued to 13 villages in regions 1, 7, 8, 9 and 10 and under the ADF $78M is budgeted for community programmes.
Singh said too that the Secure Livelihood Programme expended $31.7 million which benefited over 150 farmers who are now engaged in various aspects of crop production, aquaculture and apiculture. This programme, for which $33.7 million has been budgeted, is expected to expand within Region 1 to benefit over 200 farmers. The Finance Minister said that another $56 million will be expended on the construction for a poultry pen, plant nursery and operationalisation of the student dormitory at Liliendaal.
Students also received assistance at all levels of their schooling while in addition to allocations for expanded school dormitories and related dietary needs, a further $92.1 million was spent on construction of a student dormitory in Liliendaal with the capacity to house 120 students. It is expected that an increased number of hinterland scholarships will be awarded in light of the additional accommodation capacity at the new dorm.
