Yuille-Williams: People must be willing to help themselves

“As a government, we are quite willing to help people to improve the conditions of their lives, if they are willing to help themselves.” These were the words of Minister of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs, Joan Yuille-Williams, speaking at the presentation of cheques under the Community Action for Revival and Empowerment (CARE) funding on Friday, at the office of the Attorney General, Cabildo Chambers, St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain. During the presentation, funding was distributed for the purpose of financing community projects to some 53 organisations.

Yuille-Williams reminded recipients that the organisation which they represented must not be just a recipient of assistance, but an organisation which must become action-oriented. CARE is one of the avenues from which citizens can access funding for meaningful projects, she explained. The Ministry also recently provided funding to 41 organisations for activities to mark the celebration of Indian Arrival day. In her speech, Yuille-Williams said: “As a government, we are quite willing to help people to improve the conditions of their lives, if they are willing to help themselves.” She said her Ministry realised that communities, organisations and individuals have genuine needs, but they lacked resources to satisfy those needs.

“The empowerment of people in communities is the basic principle of CARE. This principle requires members of community organisations, in particular, to change their attitudes and the way they functioned in the past,” she said. Yuille-Williams pointed out that in charting the new direction, CARE should not be viewed as a routine way of obtaining funds for any activity, but must be seen as a mechanism for taking people with creative ideas and unmet needs to the higher plane of empowerment.

She reminded representatives of the organisations that they lived in a society which has measured up to international standards in most areas of life, using as an example, Miss TT/Universe representative, Danielle Jones, who was adjudged second runner-up in the National Costume Segment of the Miss Universe Pageant currently taking place in Ecuador. “I have no doubt that our local communities have achieved the global benchmark in community development. Community organisations are almost non-existent in many countries while we can boast of a pre-ponderance of organisations.” “Providing financial assistance to community organisations will therefore contribute to the preservation of our proud legacy in community work,” she said.