(Trinidad Guardian) Vegetables produced by the Unemployment Relief Programme (URP) under the Ministry of the People and Social Development will go to the needy. The announcement was made on Monday by Minister of the People and Social Development Dr Glenn Ramadharsingh when he addressed residents of the Dar-Ul-Hannan Islamic Care Facility for the elderly and disabled at Ravine Sable, Longdenville. He said every six-week produce from two-to-five-acre plots under cultivation by two URP gangs at Carlsen Field would be harvested and distributed.He said the URP was labelled with a stigma of low productivity and a waste of resources. Ramadharsingh said the component of the URP which fell under his ministry would be used to make positive changes in society. He said the URP under his ministry now employed mothers of children with cerebral palsy who were being paid as caregivers for their children and other children with the ailment.He said the URP employed people who were knowledgeable in agriculture to make an input. Sherifudeen Mohammed, chairman of the Islamic Community Services and retired Coast Guard commander, said the institution was managed by the Anjuman Sunnat Ul Jamaat Association (ASJA), and survived on charitable donations. He said the average cost of keeping a disabled resident at the facility was around TT$4,000 a month. Mohammed some people paid the monthly fee while some drop off their elderly relatives and abandoned them. He said the facility had the capacity for 40 but currently had 22 between the ages of 60 to 90. Most suffered with stroke and Alzheimer’s, he said.
