WITH a budget of $48.3 billion, the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security plans to continue its efforts in supporting and empowering those vulnerable groups, inclusive of women, children, men, and the elderly.

Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr. Vindhya Persaud in a recent interview highlighted that Budget 2024 is an important one, because it follows investments that would have been made from 2022 to 2023.

“From those early initiatives and investments, we saw the results. Whether it was human resource development, infrastructural development or investment into traditional sectors, giving people more opportunities to gravitate towards financial independence, economic empowerment,” the Minister explained.

She noted that the budget allocated to her ministry for this year accounts for people across Guyana, specifically, those vulnerable populations.

According to the minister, these vulnerable populations include persons living with disabilities, and women under gender equality and gender inclusion.

Minister Persaud noted that when the PPP/C came into government, there was not much focus on persons living with disabilities. Acknowledging the permanent disability benefit, the minister highlighted that this has significantly increased from 2020 to 2024, where persons living with permanent disabilities receive $19,000.

She said included in this is the complimentary and the infrastructural programmes. Minister Persaud mentioned that at the Learning Lab, which opened in Mahaica last year, from then to now, they have trained a significant number of persons living with disabilities.

This year, they are earmarked to train approximately 496 persons living with disabilities.

“While we set those targets for ourselves, we always try to exceed those targets because the manner in which we reach out to those persons, would be not only at the learning lab, but at a community level where we take training and take services, of the ministry to people. And that is also complimented by our assistive aids programme.

“We have seen the incremental movement of this programme by offering people living with disabilities anything from a wheel chair to a walker, to a white cane. Referring to Ministry of Health for hearing aids, because we want to improve quality of life,” she said.

To ensure persons with disabilities can access these opportunities, some nine buses will be provided.

Minister Persaud stated, “Whether we speak to the special needs programme where children have to go to school, whether we speak of the Learning Lab were people have to go for technical and vocational skills, transportation makes this possible.”

She added, “We will see the widening of training opportunities, offered to persons living with disabilities and their access to finance is also important if we’re going to rain because, while we have the very well-known WIIN programme that offers empowerment opportunities to women primarily, persons with disabilities can benefit from a revolving fund administered by the Ministry of Tourism Industry and commerce, and we’re seeing person gravitating to that initiative, because empowerment really centres around independence.”

Furthermore, Minister Persaud noted that under the ministry’s Gender Affairs Bureau, they will focus on gender equality and gender inclusion, as well as a policy.

From 2021 to 2023, the minister shared that the Ministry has maintained its successful eye care services in remote, rural and hinterland communities, and to an extent the coastland. Thus far, more than 1,000 persons have been served, with $23 million expended in eye care.