— President Ali announces plans for $100,000 cash grant, automatic public assistance for children living with disabilities
–transportation for each institution representing persons with disabilities
–$120M for modern business centre

By Cassandra Khan
CHILDREN living with disabilities will be receiving a one-off $100,000 cash grant in 2022, based on a register used to inform how many children there are living with disabilities in Guyana.
This was according to President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, on Friday, during a meeting with persons with disabilities (PWD) at State House.

“Based on the register, we want to give every single child with a disability a cash grant of $100,000 this year,” President Ali said.
Additionally, the Head of State also announced to attendees plans to construct a $120 million business centre for PWDs. This, he said, is expected to be replicated in each region.

Director of Projects at Central Housing and Planning Authority, Omar Narine, said that the architectural design has been completed in collaboration with the Disability Commission.
He added that the centre will comprise five work stations, three dedicated office spaces, three urinals, 10 washing and sanitising stations with accessible toilets, and a lot more. The centre will include seating arrangement that will provide adequate clearance for mobility.

“The cost for the structure is approximately $120 million and the next step is the procurement process where we will select potential contractors to commence the construction,” Narine related.
Although welcoming those initiatives, parents at the event described the agony they face when it comes to taking their children to school.

In responding to those concerns, President Ali announced that across the seven institutions representing persons living with disabilities in Guyana, each one will be provided with at least one bus.

“What I can commit to you is that we will make the funds available, we’ll go for supplementary provision to have the money to ensure each one of those institutions has at least one bus attached to it once. That is the first thing we will do,” President Ali said.

Also, upon hearing the issues faced with accessing public assistance, the Head of State said that automatic public assistance would be given to children on the register, as a means of long-term support.
Some of the persons who were present at Friday’s meeting, told the Guyana Chronicle that they are “beyond grateful” for the support they are receiving and they will receive from the government.

The measures announced by President Ali, according to one person, will address a lot, if not most of the challenges which hinder the everyday life of persons living with disabilities.
Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr. Vindhya Persaud, said that the automatic public assistance initiative is an exciting one.

PROGRESSIVE POLICY
“This is a is a very progressive policy… that His Excellency is moving in that direction where automatically once your child has a disability, they get public assistance,” Minister Persaud said.
She related that this removes the red tape which is frustrating to find medical records even when it is apparent in a person’s eyes that the child has a disability.

Minister Persaud also encouraged parents to get trained so they could offer various services, since they already administer care to their children.
“You can start at some of these facilities; we can work with you to make that happen. We are giving you a subsidy to help you to start up these facilities. In addition, we have started training people who live with disabilities from last year, teenagers and adults, so that they can be equipped with things like ICT skills and other skills so that they can gain employment,” she related.

Minister Persaud reminded parents that there are ongoing programmes to support persons living with disabilities.
“We have already started to construct an institution for training programmes for people living with disabilities… that will be complete and operational by August,” she related.

Additionally, across the country, wheelchairs, white canes, canes, hearing aids, and more items are being provided free of cost to all those persons living with disabilities.
“It’s going to make life easy so that you can have access to all of these things,” Minister Persaud said.

The government has allocated $200 million in this year’s budget to offer direct support to persons living with disabilities. Minister Persaud, had said that from the allocation, new and improved healthcare facilities will be constructed to assist persons living with disabilities, among other things.