–with $35,000 grant, President Ali announces

AS the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration continues its support for persons living with disabilities in Guyana, President, Dr Irfaan Ali, on Tuesday announced a $35,000 grant for those on the country’s register.
The Head of State made this announcement during a brief address at a Christmas social hosted for children living with disabilities at State House.

President Ali said: “To continue the investment and to support your lives and with the register we have now, we are going to release this month a further $875 million… directly to each of the persons on the register, almost 26,000 persons.”
He added that what this means is that outside of the $100,000 grant that every person above the age of 18 will be receiving across Guyana, each person on the country’s disability register will receive an additional grant of $35,000.
The country that his government is building, President Ali noted, is one that will address issues relating to persons with disabilities and ensure that they are supported.

In order to continue supporting those persons, he indicated that before the end of the year, the Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr Vindhya Persaud will host another series of consultations to see what new priority areas have emerged with all of the investments being made.
“You are an integral part of our society, you are part of the collective whole and we will continue to do everything to ensure that your life continues to be good and that you continue to also benefit from the development of our country,” he affirmed.
Against this backdrop, President Ali applauded the Ministry of Human Services for the work that it has been doing in reaching out and catering to the community of persons living with disabilities.

He said that the government started off not having a complete register of persons living with disabilities and as such, wanted to have a complete one to be able to structure support in a meaningful way.
Further, he disclosed that the government has been able to not only have almost 6,000 children on that register but on the national register of persons living with disabilities close to 26,000 persons there, thus covering every single region of the country.
Additionally, Dr Ali said that the government has also been able to support the application by organisations and community for duty-free concessions for specialised vehicles that are needed to support families and persons living with disabilities.

President Ali indicated that his administration made a commitment that every region will have at least one vehicle to support persons living with disabilities, and thus far has purchased seven such buses.

However, he announced that hopefully by the end of January, they will have an additional six or seven buses to support those organisations and persons living with disabilities, especially children.
President Ali said: “It’s not only during this festive period, but our work with those living with disabilities… is continuous every single day of the year.”