Government establishes NGO unit in People's Ministry

Cabinet agreed on Thursday to establish a special unit in the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of the People to cater for the needs of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO).

People Minister Glen Ramadharsingh made the announcement at the post cabinet briefing. He said there are at least 75 NGOs that receive government grants of more than $66 million annually and there was a need for a better distribution of these resources.

Ramadharsingh said the NGO unit will be staffed by professionals whose responsibility will be to make a proper assessment of each application for funding. He noted under the previous government there was a bias to urban based NGOs, meaning that well deserving organisations operating in rural communities were shut out.

He said that is changing and announced grants for two organisations that had never received any assistance from the Manning PNM administration.

One of them, he said, is the Bridge of Hope that has been providing shelter and a number of support services for children for more than 10 years in the Comuto area. The minister announced that cabinet agreed Thursday to a grant of $281, 640 as an annual grant for the NGO with the money being transferred quarterly.

Another group to benefit is the Maha Sabha, which will get a grant of $1.3 million to help with its project to help socially challenged women. The organisation had repeated appealed for help from the previous government and was always turned turned, the minister said.

Ramadharsingh said the move to establish the new unit is to ensure that there is equitable distribution of resources to deserving NGOs representing a cross section of Trinidad and Tobago, noting that for the first time there is a focus on rural activities.

The minister also announced that cabinet agreed to the establishment of a National Development Centre for persons with disabilities. He said the centre, which will be one of five to be set up by the government, will be centrally located at Carlsen Field, Chaguanas.

Ramadharshingh noted that 4.1 per cent of the population suffers from some form of disability - that's about 53,000 persons. He said the focus on the centre would be on early detection of learning disabilities in children.