SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Pen­sion­ers are to ben­e­fit from a new pro­gramme ini­ti­at­ed by the Min­istry of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment called Di­rect Con­struct. The an­nounce­ment was made by Dr Glenn Ra­mad­hars­ingh, the Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment at the Scar­bor­ough Es­planade in To­ba­go last week, dur­ing a two-day Di­rect Im­pact pro­gramme on the sis­ter isle. Ra­mad­hars­ingh said the pro­gram­mme should get go­ing in as lit­tle as a month's time and would see the re­sources of the State and part­ner agen­cies work­ing to­geth­er to build or re­pair the homes of the el­der­ly. Ra­mad­hars­ingh said the ben­e­fi­cia­ries would be el­der­ly peo­ple who are re­ceiv­ing as­sis­tance from the State.

He said many of T&T's old­er folks live in run-down hous­es and many have chil­dren abroad, or who are oth­er­wise un­able to as­sist them to live with some mea­sure of dig­ni­ty and age grace­ful­ly. Ra­mad­hars­ingh called on all na­tion­als to start look­ing out for their neigh­bours' chil­dren and oth­er vul­ner­a­ble in the com­mu­ni­ty. The min­is­ter said he was deeply sad­dened and dis­tressed by the death of Gas­par­il­lo youth, Daniel Guer­ra. He said it was time the com­mu­ni­ty start­ed keep­ing close eyes on each oth­er in a bid to pre­vent any sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tion from re­cur­ring. The 500-plus peo­ple who at­tend­ed the func­tions got an ad­di­tion­al treat. They were greet­ed by Miss World 2010 Alexan­dria Mills and Miss World Africa, Em­ma Waraeus. Both ladies greet­ed Ra­mad­hars­ingh and Min­is­ter of To­ba­go De­vel­op­ment Ver­nel­la Al­leyne-Top­pin and TOP Leader Ash­worth Jack. The beau­ty queens al­so ex­pressed their de­sire to as­sist in the de­vel­op­ment of To­ba­go.