Teen Outreach Programme adds to success of Nevisian Pearls Programme
 
By Jáedee S.K. Caines
Nevis Reporter, SKNVibes.com

Minister of Social Transformation in the Nevis Island Administration ((NIA), the Hon. Hensley Daniel

This statement was made yesterday (Dec. 17) by the Minister of Social Transformation in the Nevis Island Administration ((NIA), the Hon. Hensley Daniel, during his address on the success of the recently concluded Teen Outreach Programme.

This programme, according to Minister Daniel, is part of the NIA’s quest to find solutions to the problems that face the island’s youth. He added that there were many individuals in opposition when the idea of establishing the programme and allowing teenage mothers to return to school surfaced.

“We live in a conservative society and the response from a number of people across all sections of the community was that this was a bad thing and that it would lead to increased incidents of teenage pregnancy,” Daniel said.

Minister Daniel recorded that teenage mothers in St. Kitts had been returning to school since 1998 under Project Viola. ~~Adz:Right~~

“In a way, in a real way, we in Nevis were behind in terms of what is happening in the rest of the Caribbean and the rest of the world, and so it was very important for us to move speedily through this,” he said.

According to the Minister, the programme featured topics including Budgeting, Communication and Parenting which lead to no repeat pregnancies by the mothers enrolled in the programme.

Daniel recorded the Administration’s satisfaction with the programme which ended on Saturday, December 13, 2008.

“We are satisfied that today we made an imaginative decision, a far reaching decision, a fundamental decision, a progressive decision, in a society that had continued to be quite punitive in its response to the young people of the country,” he said.