THE government has again demonstrated its commitment towards assisting the vulnerable sections of society by fulfilling a promise it made to help single parents, who earn $40,000 or less per month, to set up small businesses through the establishment of a revolving loan scheme.
The loan scheme was formally launched last month with an initial $500M through the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI). Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, said it could eventually have as much as between $2B and $3B for loans.
Last weekend saw the scheme introduced to Region Six and hundreds of women turned out for the ceremony.
The uniqueness of this micro credit facility is that the loan could be obtained without collateral.
At the launch in Region Six, Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Ms. Priya Manickchand declared: “We want to give you the ability to access income to be able to better your lives; the ability to look after yourself and to be self-dependent…(and) we are putting the tools into your hands.”
She noted that the biggest problem facing persons, especially single parents, when seeking a loan is producing the collateral for banks and said the Women of Worth (WOW) scheme is to help women get a better life for their children.
Noting the government’s many moves to ensure a better life for children, Ms. Manickchand referred to bills passed in the National Assembly to ensure that they are safeguarded from all forms of abuse.
This form of help is crucial for the well being of the society because the trend seems to be one of an increasing number of single parents and in most cases they have young children to take care of.
Many experience tremendous financial hardships and simply cannot afford to send their children to school. This, of course, triggers a vicious cycle of negatives and harmful effects and the destruction of the future of the children involved.
According to experts, single parent families are at a higher risk of poverty than couple families and on average single mothers have poorer health than couple mothers.
Single parenting is strongly associated with an increased risk of a number of negative social, behavioral and emotional outcomes for children.
However, while the association is strong, on balance the size and the actual numbers affected are modest. Most children from single parent families do well.
Many factors influence how children develop in single parent families: the parent’s age, education level, and occupation; the family’s income and the family’s support network of friends and extended family members (including the non-resident parent, if available).
Disadvantages in these factors that often accompany single parenting appear to cause most of this association rather than single parenting itself.
Shocking headlines do get published. For example, a 2003 Swedish study stated that those living with a single parent were about three times more likely to kill themselves or end up in the hospital after an attempted suicide by the age of 26, than children living with two parents. However, this only happened to 2.2 per cent of girls and one per cent of boys.
A variety of viewpoints do exist, with different readings of the research possible.
The Institute for the Study of Civil Society reports that children of single parents, after controlling for other variables like family income, are more likely to have problems. There are impacts of sole parenting on children. However, the weight of the evidence it is suggested, does not appear to support a view that sole parents are a major cause of societal ills and are doing irreparable damage to their children. (Source: Wikipedia)
It is also significant that this micro credit venture is a collaborative effort between the government and the private sector, a concept which is gaining acceptance throughout the world and one which has been found to be effective in tackling issues and problems facing societies.
On this note, this government a long time ago stated that it is in favour of a public/private partnership approach to economic and national development.
In this instance, the entity involved is the GBTI, one of the largest financial institutions here.