Minister of Social Services, Information and Broadcasting, the Hon. Myles K. LaRoda, recently concluded a four-day Official Visit to the island-communities of Acklins, Crooked Island and Long Cay as part of the Ministry’s “Let’s Discuss Our Family Island Affairs” Tour.
Minister LaRoda was accompanied by Mrs. Phedra Rahming-Turnquest, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Social Services, Information and Broadcasting, in addition to other ministry personnel, and senior officials from the Department of Social Services, the Department of Gender and Family Affairs, and the Secretariat of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities.
Stops included visits to schools, the elderly, persons with disabilities, and government facilities, including public infrastructure.
Children, the elderly, persons with disabilities, and women, are among a country’s most vulnerable populations.
Town Hall Meetings were hosted in Acklins and Crooked Island to not only apprise residents of the products and services they could access through the Department of Social Services, but to get feedback from those residents on what they perceive to be some of the challenges they face.
The visit also resulted in the establishment of Family Island Coordination Councils in Acklins and Crooked Island as part of the fight against Gender-based Violence (GBV) across all Bahamian communities. The move is part of a nation-wide effort to reduce, if not eliminate, the incidences of Gender-based Violence in The Bahamas by the Department of Gender and Family Affairs and its stakeholders.
Additional Councils have been established in seven other districts across The Bahamas. The establishment of the Councils is in line with recommendations from the National Task Force on Gender-based Violence. Experts say some form of GBV occurs in every society — no matter how large or small.
Presentations were made to a number of persons with disabilities including the donation of a wheelchair to a 96-year-old resident of Snug Corner, and the commitment to construct a ramp to provide her with greater mobility/access to her house and property; and the donation of Walkers and Walking Canes, also the donation of two laptops – one, an assistive device presented to a young lady who is blind – that was installed with the J.A.W.S. (Job Access With Speech) Programnme.
JAWS is the world’s most popular screen reader, developed for computer users whose vision loss prevents them from seeing screen content or navigating with a mouse. JAWS provides speech and Braille output for the most popular computer applications, and allows its users further opportunities to: Read documents, emails, websites and apps; easily navigate with your mouse; scan and read all of your documents, including PDF; fill out web forms with ease; save time with Skim Reading and Text Analyzer; and surf the net with web browsing keystrokes.
Minister LaRoda applauded residents across the three island-communities for making the Official Visit a success.
“The Town Hall Meetings, all of them, were well attended,” he said. “We had more people there than some of the bigger islands we have been to. They were engaging. They were grateful not just for wheelchairs that were presented, walking canes, or inspection of homes with a view to assist, but to just be able to ask questions and get answers.
“That is what Social Services is all about in these communities. Providing information, delivering on products and services that can make their lives much easier,” Minister LaRoda added.
The next stop on the Let’s Discuss Our Family Island Affairs Tour, will take place in Mayaguana and Inagua, before moving onto other islands, as part of Minister LaRoda’s plan to “continue the conversations.”
“We will continue the conversations to see how these islands, especially the southern islands, can be more positively impacted. The next trip will be Inagua and Mayaguana and I think we probably will do Exuma and Ragged Island later on, but I want to do the entire Bahamas, in particular those remote areas [as] when the country is going through tough times, they feel it even more, particularly the more vulnerable populations,” Minister LaRoda added.
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