Several posts requested by the Child Care Board (CCB) and soon to be filled by Government will make a significant difference in the lives of this island’s children.
This was revealed by Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, Kirk Humphrey, during his remarks to launch Child Month 2024 at a church service, held at the People’s Cathedral, Collymore Rock, St Michael.
Child Month is being celebrated this May under the theme Our Children: Building Hope and Resilience for Tomorrow.
Humphrey, who noted that the Child Care Board would now be hiring additional staff, including a clinical psychiatrist, psychologist, specialised social workers and nurses, said:
“Those positions will now be filled during the course of the year. I know those positions were in the Estimates [of Expenditure], to allow us to serve the children a bit better than we have in the past.
“But, I feel beyond this type of micro intervention, we need to have a macro conversation about Barbados. I say so recognising that social work could both be a micro and macro intervention.”
He stressed that while there had been a lot of micro intervening, there was a need to also have “a more macro understanding of where we stand”.
Minister Humphrey stated:
“I say so because I think a lot of what we can achieve in Barbados depends on us working with other groups, working with the community groups, the community leaders, working with other agencies, to have that large scale intervention to prevent things from happening before they actually happen; to help build our society up and make it stronger as opposed to dealing with the elements that have gone untoward in our society.
“I look forward to a more macro level intervention. I believe it’s going to make a difference in Barbados. And I think that is why the amalgamation of the social services is so important. I think that would allow us to have a macro-scale intervention to work at the community level and to bring change. And, I also think that that is why the new Child Protection legislation is extremely important.”
The New Child Protection Bill, he added, will be before the House of Assembly again on May 14.
“That’s our intention to debate the new legislation on May 14, and hopefully to pass it, to allow us to protect the children of this country because the children of this country deserve protection; that is what the new Child Protection Bill will do for us,” he said.
The Minister further pointed out that community leaders, persons who worked at the Child Care Board in the past, teachers and others working together could contribute to making “a significant difference” in the lives of children across the island.
Calling on the media to continue highlighting the positive stories about children, Mr. Humphrey told the children present: “I anticipate that most of you, if not all of you will go on to do yourselves, your family, your country, extremely well. We are very, very proud of the children of Barbados.”
SOURCE: Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS).
