IN recent times, the government has underscored its ambitious plans and goals for the next five years, ranging from infrastructure to initiatives that directly impact citizens’ daily experiences.
One ministry that is continuing to execute these initiatives and is actively supporting Guyanese is the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security (MHSSS) that is led by Minister Vindhya Persaud.
The minister has highlighted that while her ministry is known for its successful Women’s Innovation and Investment Network (WIIN) programmes, they do a lot of work with persons with disabilities (PWDs) throughout Guyana.
Minister Persaud stated that she has had the privilege of working in this area since taking office and has recognised that inclusivity and accessibility are important things to have.
For nearly six years, the ministry has been working closely with PWDs to not only improve the quality of services offered to them, but to develop new programmes and build new buildings in order to offer more services.
According to Minister Vindhya, “In 2020, we started a number of concepts and those rolled out in 2021, but I think in 2023 when we realised the first learning lab in our country, we were able to successfully work with persons living with disabilities in a building dedicated to their free technical vocational training and from then to now we’ve managed to train 1,898 persons from every region in Guyana,”
The minister said they focused on critical areas of development, recognising that attention needed to be paid to literacy and numeracy. This resulted in the inclusion of programmes tailored to that critical need.
Persons were able to benefit from training in garment construction, audiovisual technology, learning utilising the JAWS (Jobs Access With Speech) software, and a few other programmes that focused on interaction with PWDs.
Dr Persaud pointed out that in training these persons, the ministry wanted to ensure that not only PWDs benefit, but ensure those in the public service who are engaging and serving PWDs do this in a professional, sensitive way.
Some 247 persons in the public sector were trained on how to engage and interact with the PWDs, allowing them to become more conscious about their special needs.
Additionally, the minister said they want to expand the number of courses and types of courses offered to PWDs. These include: climate smart practices, sustainable agriculture, introducing PWDs to the City and Guilds Programme for training in carpentry, masonry, electrical installation and plumbing, training in the culinary arts, among many other uplifting programmes.
“One of the beautiful programmes that we did was the socio-economic training programme where persons learned about business literacy, how to develop a business plan with their focus on accessing funding through the revolving loan that would have been in existence since in 2023,” the minister said adding, “To date 59 persons would have benefitted from this and they had comprehensive training. This was a collaboration between the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security and the Small Business Bureau.”
More than this, the minister noted that there was a referral path where persons were trained and received business literacy training.
From the socio-economic workshop executed, persons benefitted from training in several social issues including things related to gender-based violence, domestic violence, and mental health.
Aside from training, Dr Persaud pointed out that they started assistive aids programme and have been able to serve hundreds of persons in communities, provide thousands of Guyanese PWDs with wheelchairs, walkers, and white canes, and partner with the Ministry of Health to have a referral system in place for PWDs to access free hearing aids and free prosthesis.
With a wide agenda set for development this year, the minister emphasised, “we’re going to be working to ensure that the persons who will benefit from all the different programmes and initiatives catering to this population, they are aware of it, and they can also easily access these programmes.”
