Project pulling women out of poverty

THE Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs, has pledged its commitment to guiding and supporting graduates of the Non-Traditional Skills Training Programme for Women, be it in advanced training, employment or self-employment. This assurance was given by Culture Minister Joan Yuille-Williams when she addressed yesterday’s graduation of 342 women who participated in the six-month programme at the Centre of Excellence.

The Minister said the Ministry was recently engaged in a strategic planning initiative aimed at strengthening and re-engineering a number of programmes to be more responsive to the needs of communities. She said during the last six months, the three-day-a-week training the women undertook will certainly have impacted on their commitment and responsibilities at home, but the sense of achievement they now felt will have made the sacrifices worthwhile. She said the programme was a “powerful mechanism for poverty alleviation” which targetted women who are typically under-employed or unemployed.

She said the programme was meeting its objectives, and since 2002 it has expanded and enhanced in that there have been 1,100 graduates with 65 percent of the trainees benefitting from on-the-job experiences. There was also the introduction of two new training areas in the fields of domestic appliance repair and small engine repair and maintenance, and two new training centres, the Morris Marshall Development Centre and the Mayaro Composite School. Women pursuing CXC have also been included, as well as the physically challenged.

Yuille-Williams emphasised that the programme must not only make women employable but also ensure that an increased percentage of women were managing their own businesses in non-traditional and all other areas. The programme began in 2000 as a collaborative effort between four regional governments and the Inter-American Development Bank.