Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Su­ruj Ram­bachan says the Gov­ern­ment will con­tin­ue to forge links with lob­by groups and non-gov­ern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tions (NGOs) to en­cour­age vol­un­teer work in T&T.Speak­ing at the 86th an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tions of the East In­di­an Friend­ly So­ci­ety in Gas­par­il­lo yes­ter­day, Ram­bachan said the spir­it of vol­un­teerism was alive in T&T and that was ev­i­dent by the num­ber of NGO's in­volved in ser­vice type work.

Say­ing one of the goals of the PP Gov­ern­ment was to forge strong links with such or­gan­i­sa­tions, Ram­bachan said the Gov­ern­ment recog­nised that a large mea­sure of the so­cial trans­for­ma­tion work re­quired com­mit­ment and com­mu­ni­ty knowl­edge.He urged the East In­di­an Friend­ly So­ci­ety to part­ner with the so­cial ser­vices of the Min­istry of the Peo­ple, as well as the Min­istry of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment and the Min­istry of Sports and Youth Af­fairs."Mem­bers must vis­it the Min­istry of the Peo­ple and work with Dr Glen Ra­mad­hars­ingh to es­tab­lish an ac­tiv­i­ty cen­tre for re­tired and aged per­sons in the com­mu­ni­ty," Ram­bachan said.

He as­sured them that the Gov­ern­ment was pre­pared to lis­ten and part­ner with the peo­ple for a hap­pi­er so­ci­ety.Ram­bachan al­so urged the group to get in­volved in the Gov­ern­ment's men­tor­ing pro­gramme. He urged the pres­i­dent and ex­ec­u­tive of the so­ci­ety to bring young peo­ple and groom them for lead­er­ship of the so­ci­ety."If not the ab­sence of lead­er­ship suc­ces­sion could lead to the demise of the so­ci­ety," Ram­bachan said.In ad­di­tion to the East In­di­an Friend­ly So­ci­ety, Ram­bachan al­so paid trib­ute to the Ori­on Club and the Baden Pow­ell Club, which were es­tab­lished more than 50 years ago.