The Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP) has launched its Black Card Se­ries with the PDP Book Card—a dig­i­tal card worth $700 with a bar­code that is re­load­able and is re­deemable at a spe­cif­ic book­store. 

The card is the first in the PDP Black Card se­ries and bears the im­ages of PDP Po­lit­i­cal Leader Wat­son Duke on the front, and Head Deputy Leader Kezel Jack­son on the back.

The PDP has con­firmed that the PDP Book Card will be avail­able to fam­i­lies in need through­out the vul­ner­a­ble com­mu­ni­ties in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“While the gov­ern­ment is dis­cussing dig­i­ti­za­tion the PDP is pi­o­neer­ing it.  One of the found­ing prin­ci­ples of the PDP is a sus­tain­able fu­ture for Trinidad and To­ba­go. We firm­ly be­lieve, in or­der to achieve this sus­tain­able fu­ture, we must pro­tect and de­vel­op our most valu­able re­sources, our chil­dren,” the PDP stat­ed in a re­lease. 

“Every child across our coun­try should have ac­cess to the tools and ser­vices they need to learn, to grow and to de­vel­op. The PDP is com­mit­ted to en­sur­ing that No Child Will be Left Be­hind. This is the goal of our PDP Book Card pro­gram,” the par­ty said.

The PDP re­ports that last week, po­lit­i­cal leader Wat­son Duke and Head Deputy Po­lit­i­cal Leader Kezel Jack­son be­gan dis­trib­ut­ing lap­tops in Hell­yard of Beetham Gar­dens.  They al­so dis­trib­uted the black card.

Ac­cord­ing to the PDP, “par­ents were over­whelmed and in­di­cat­ed that for the first time, they were re­mem­bered by politi­cians.”

“We are putting the pur­chas­ing pow­er in the hands of the cit­i­zens. We are giv­ing the pow­er back to the peo­ple so that dig­ni­ty nev­er has to be sac­ri­ficed in or­der to have ac­cess to per­son­al de­vel­op­ment tools,” said PDP po­lit­i­cal leader, Wat­son Duke.

PDP Head Deputy Leader Kezel Jack­son is host of the ed­u­ca­tion­al tele­vi­sion show “Crash Class”. She al­so is a for­mer tu­tor at The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies.  She as­sert­ed that the PDP “re­mains com­mit­ted to the de­vel­op­ment of every child in every com­mu­ni­ty” and main­tained that “every child should have an equal op­por­tu­ni­ty re­gard­less of where they live, their in­come brack­et, race, re­li­gion and gen­der.”

“Ed­u­ca­tion is the tool to cre­ate a for­mi­da­ble tal­ent pool from which we can ac­cess the skills we need to take Trinidad and To­ba­go in­to the fu­ture,” Kezel Jack­son em­pha­sized.  “Home grown tal­ent en­gen­ders a fierce pride in our young peo­ple, en­cour­ag­ing them to stand up and serve their coun­try, to pro­tect their land and to one day be­come the great lead­ers and torch bear­ers car­ry­ing our beloved coun­try for­ward. PDP is at the fore­front of mak­ing this pos­si­ble by en­abling our chil­dren to ac­cess the fu­ture.”

The PDP says its Black Card se­ries will fea­ture many oth­er pro­grams “cre­at­ed, en­gi­neered and fo­cused on per­son­al de­vel­op­ment for every cit­i­zen” of Trinidad and To­ba­go.