RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

As the Gov­ern­ment pre­pares to de­liv­er the 2027 Bud­get next Mon­day, ad­vo­cates are call­ing for tar­get­ed in­vest­ment to help mi­grant chil­dren, peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties, autis­tic peo­ple and chil­dren with learn­ing dif­fi­cul­ties ac­cess ed­u­ca­tion, health­care, em­ploy­ment and ba­sic sup­port.

Dis­abled ad­vo­cate Destar Dythe wants the $2,000 dis­abil­i­ty grant in­creased by at least $500, say­ing it is not enough to meet the ris­ing cost of liv­ing.

“I my­self, be­ing a dis­abled per­son and hav­ing to re­ceive that grant, find it very hard to live on for the month,” said Dythe, a mem­ber of Dis­abled Peo­ples’ In­ter­na­tion­al.

She said re­cip­i­ents of­ten use the grant to pay rent, buy food and med­ica­tion, and pro­vide for their chil­dren.

Dythe is al­so call­ing for a com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre in Di­a­mond Vil­lage, which has been with­out one since its fa­cil­i­ty was deemed un­safe more than 25 years ago. A new cen­tre could host Gov­ern­ment pro­grammes and cours­es and help keep young peo­ple away from crime and drugs, she said.

Ang­ie Ram­nar­ine, who runs La Ro­maine Mi­grant Sup­port, wants greater sup­port for or­gan­i­sa­tions that pro­vide child-friend­ly spaces to mi­grant chil­dren who are out of school or not yet in­te­grat­ed in­to the for­mal ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem.

“I would like to see that the hun­dreds of mi­grant chil­dren that we have out of school or in child-friend­ly spaces ... get some sort of no­tice and sup­port,” Ram­nar­ine said.

She wants the Min­istries of Ed­u­ca­tion and Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty to con­sid­er fund­ing and cur­ricu­lum sup­port for the or­gan­i­sa­tions, which help keep chil­dren en­gaged and off the streets. She al­so hopes the re­cent Cab­i­net re­align­ment, plac­ing im­mi­gra­tion and mi­grant af­fairs un­der Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der, will speed up mi­grant doc­u­men­ta­tion and im­prove ac­cess to schools and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions.

“Checks and bal­ances are im­por­tant, but there must be a faster way to do it,” she said, call­ing for a re­view of the bu­reau­cra­cy in­volved in ac­cess­ing ser­vices.

Meena Jadoo­nanan of the A Touch of Joy Foun­da­tion is urg­ing con­tin­ued in­vest­ment in vul­ner­a­ble com­mu­ni­ties, in­clud­ing chil­dren and young peo­ple, women, ed­u­ca­tion, health­care, food se­cu­ri­ty and peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties. She al­so wants more op­por­tu­ni­ties for non­prof­it or­gan­i­sa­tions to part­ner with the Gov­ern­ment.

Kevin Rati­ram, pres­i­dent of the Rapid Fire Kidz Foun­da­tion, wants more re­sources for the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry’s Stu­dent Sup­port Ser­vices Di­vi­sion to im­prove di­ag­no­sis and sup­port for chil­dren with learn­ing dis­abil­i­ties.

“Such chil­dren re­quire prompt di­ag­no­sis of their dis­abil­i­ties, and very im­por­tant­ly, need stu­dent aides as­signed to them,” Rati­ram said.

He said de­lays in di­ag­no­sis and short­ages of stu­dent aides can dis­ad­van­tage chil­dren and put ad­di­tion­al pres­sure on teach­ers.

Autism ad­vo­cate Maya Kir­ti Nanan is call­ing for life­long sup­port, in­clud­ing in­vest­ment in in­clu­sive ed­u­ca­tion, teacher train­ing and school re­sources.

“An autis­tic per­son is autis­tic for their en­tire life,” Nanan said, urg­ing sup­port that ex­tends from ear­ly in­ter­ven­tion and ed­u­ca­tion to em­ploy­ment, in­de­pen­dence and par­tic­i­pa­tion in so­ci­ety.

She al­so wants more op­por­tu­ni­ties for young peo­ple to de­vel­op skills, pur­sue en­tre­pre­neur­ship and find mean­ing­ful em­ploy­ment.