[Barbados] 'Improve skills to help fight poverty'

from The Nation News

THE KEY to wiping out poverty in Barbados could well be a broad-based programme drawing the best elements of several successful training schemes, including the Barbados Defence Force's (BDF) sports project.

Government's advisor on eradicating poverty, Hamilton Lashley, made the comment during a recent interview with the DAILY NATION.

"I would like to see the BDF programme, which has been very successful, fused into a programme utilising the community resource centres.

"You also have to take the best elements of the Vocational Training Programme that the Ministry of Labour has, the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme, the Welfare To Work Programme and the Community Technology Programme," Lashley said.

He also suggested a broad cultural programme that included the establishment of community recording studios. The idea was to give Barbadians a door to escape poverty by developing their skills to the point where they could make a decent living, Lashley said.

He saw the sports programme providing scholarships and an entry into overseas professional clubs as well as laying the basis for a professional soccer league. He said the training programmes had to be taken to the community and should not have the makings of a boot camp.

"The answer is not boot camps, to my mind. The answer is also not pushing people into the Youth Service, although the Youth Service has its role."

Lashley said he was preparing a document on poverty alleviation for submission shortly to Prime Minister Owen Arthur. (TY)