Govt hosts poverty expo
Govt hosts poverty expo
The Ministry of Social Services hosted a Poverty Reduction Outreach Expo on Saturday at Windsor Park on Wulff Road. The expo was the ministry’s effort to target unemployed and underemployed individuals as part of the government’s efforts to reduce poverty across the country. Social Services Minister Barbara Cartwright said that, “Poverty is the inability to build savings, own property, or accumulate any financial buffer.
“It makes you strapped in chronic instability even when you are employed. “Poverty is when you are forced to make impossible choices between buying food, paying rent, or keeping the lights on.” The event featured several organizations that provided counseling and financial services. Vendors also provided packages with food items, clothes, and other everyday essentials.
Previously, Cartwright said that children are amongst those mostly impacted by poverty. Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology Keenan Johnson said that children living in poverty miss out on opportunities to excel academically. “Think about a child growing up in a home where money is tight,” he said during the event.
“There may be plenty of love, encouragement and ambition…but also real challenges. The cost of transportation, school supplies, access to a computer or reliable internet. “Sometimes, even having enough to eat before going to school.
None of those circumstances tells us anything about that child’s intelligence, ability or potential but they can affect that child’s opportunity to succeed. “When a young person learns to read with confidence, understand numbers, think critically and solve problems, doors begin to open. They are better prepared to further their education, learn a trade, start a business or secure meaningful employment.” Officials gave several attendees Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) vouchers to help pay their bills.
Minister of Energy JoBeth Coleby-Davis said that the government is committed to correcting power struggles. “Nobody thanks the grid because nobody needs to — that is what a working country looks like,” she said during the expo. “Now consider the morning after, power is disconnected due to an unpaid bill.
The kettle will not boil, the phone will not charge, and a mother stands in the quiet with a bill she could not pay. “Is that acceptable? I say it is not.
Not in The Bahamas, not on our watch, and that is why we gather here today. The United Nations set aside World Poverty Day, the 17th of October, for a reason, so that the world would stop and look squarely at those who struggle. “See, poverty is easy to ignore when it is quiet, it hides behind closed doors and darkened windows.
A day like this refuses to let us look away, it asks every government, every ministry, and every citizen one question: What are we going to do about it? “So, I will not offer you comfortable words, I will offer you action. Poverty is not inevitable; it is not a fact of nature.
It is a condition. We have the powers to change, and this government accepts the duty to do whatever is necessary to eradicate it.”