|
|
|
|
|
|
| Press & Public Relations, Nevis Island Administrat |
|
|
|
|
Charlestown Nevis (February 3, 2004) Health Educator in the Nevis Island Administration, Ms Shirley Wilkes said that Nevisians were a part of the national committee mandated to reduce the level of poverty that presently exist in the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis.
Speaking to the Government Information Services on Monday, Ms Wilkes noted that a recent assessment called the Poverty Assessment of the Socio Economic conditions of St. Kitts and Nevis revealed that 30% of persons were living in the poverty range.
She observed that a steering committee was formed to look at a number of strategies that can be used in communities to help to alleviate the poverty condition. She also observed that Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Physical Planning, Mr. Elvin Bailey, Mrs. Olvis Dyer and herself were the
persons selected to serve on that committee.
According to the Health Educator, the three-day initiation workshop, which took place in St. Kitts last week, was to identify the role of the committee and ways in which the committee can assist in the fight against poverty. “Our role is to form a sub committee in Nevis taking into consideration that
poverty cuts across all sectors,” she said.
“Our sub committee is to identify key persons in the community who we could train as community leaders or if they already exist as community leaders so that they could help their community to alleviate poverty.”
In pointing out that there were three basic areas of concentration, Ms Wilkes noted that it would take at least eleven months to train persons and to formulate a plan of action that can be implemented within the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis.
She said that the three basic areas to be concentrated on are longevity in terms of living a healthy life, upgrading the standard of living and the empowerment of individuals based on training persons on how to budget their finances as well as empowering themselves to get better paying jobs.
The Ministry of Social Development, Community and Gender Affairs in St .Kitts was given the task of spearheading the entire training in collaboration with UNECLAC which would provide funding as well as technical assistance. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
