PERSONS who constitute the Boards of Guardians, on the East Bank of Demerara, recently benefited from a training programme organised by the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security The training, undertaken by Deputy Director of Social Services, Hamwanttie Bisesar, was part of a country wide exercise that the ministry has embarked upon; moving week by week throughout the country and training a number of persons who sit on the local boards.

Such training will continue until all the members of boards are trained. “And this is a very key exercise,” subject minister, Dr. Vindhya Persaud, has observed. The boards deal with public assistance, which is applied for at the ministry’s offices across the country. The application goes to the Boards of Guardians for consideration and once the persons satisfy the criteria specified by the legislation, they can benefit from the service.

If they do not qualify, however, the matter can be appealed at the Poor Law Commission. Chairperson of that Commission, Amanda Richards, was on hand Friday to interact with persons who attended the exercise. Meanwhile, Minister Persaud also took the opportunity during her outreach to meet with members of newly formed women’s groups.

“This was a very good interaction because these groups are new and they’re interested in how they can benefit from the Ministry’s programmes, so they were able to ask questions and raise their concerns,” Minister Persaud said. One programme in particular that caught their interest was the recently launched Women’s Innovation and Investment Network (WIIN). They were especially interested in learning how they would be able to use the skills they would’ve garnered through the programme.

The women, of Golden Grove, were of varying ages, backgrounds, and levels of skills. Minister Persaud’s meeting with them all formed part of the Ministry’s efforts on gender streamlining in the country. In fact, recently, the Ministry’s Gender Affairs Bureau has been hosting a series of men’s forums across the country to address the same issue.