Minister Manickchand to launch programme in Essequibo
GOVERNMENT is working to implement additional measures to ensure that some of Guyana’s most vulnerable receive assistance in order for them to help themselves and others. The Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, towards this end, will be visiting regions throughout the country to give assistance to single parents who have registered with the single parent assistance fund.

Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Ms. Priya Manickchand will be launching the programme in Essequibo today.

She said that this year, Government has decided to make three interventions in the lives of single parents. “We are committed to ensuring that we assist this vulnerable group so that they can contribute to Guyana’s development and so that they can make their lives, their children’s and those that they are responsible for, better.”

The Minister noted that Government and single parents have recognised that they will not be able to meet the needs of all single parents at the same time. As such, this year single parents who are employed and have a daycare expense will be assisted.

Minister Manickchand explained that the category of parents that are going to benefit was derived from the Single Parent Database that the Ministry started last year.

Single parents who are employed and have at least two children with a daycare expense and their income, inclusive of remittances and other contributing factors not exceeding $30,000 are to benefit.

There are over 700 persons on the register who meet these requirements and they are the ones who will be assisted with $1000 per month.

The Ministry’s staff have been verifying information and informing persons that the distribution of this assistance will begin shortly. They are also being notified of the various locations across the country.

The distribution schedule is as follows:

The third aspect of the programme will see the Ministry giving small grants to single parents to use to make themselves self-sufficient and improve their quality of life.

The programme will complement the interventions currently being made by the government which include providing uniform vouchers to over 30,000 students and public assistance to some 15,000 people, many of whom are single parents.

Government will also spend $3.3B on old age pension which caters for over 40,000 senior citizens. Some of this money is also being used to provide waivers to pay their water rates.

To ensure that children are looked after as well, government will spend some $710M for the school feeding programme at 100 primary schools in Regions 1, 7, 8 and 9.

This, Minister Manickchand said, shows government’s commitment to the social services sector as its expenditure on this sector keeps significantly increasing.

It is projected that before the end of the year over 1,000 people would have benefited in one way or another under the single parent programme