Prime Minister Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit has given a commitment that the ‘Yes We Care’ programme will remain central in moving forward with Government’s social protection programmes.
The ‘Yes We Care’ programme, a bold initiative of the Roosevelt Skerrit Administration, provides personal care and attention to the elderly particularly those who are alone, or whose families are unable to provide for them because of poverty, sickness or unemployment.
The Prime Minister told the contract signing ceremony of the Bense Water Supply Project earlier this week that the 2012/2013 Budget will reflect Government’s continued desire to provide assistance to people who are poor and disadvantaged.
“There were several hundreds of our people, elderly who were suffering, no one to cook for them and wash their clothes, no one to bathe them. The Government is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to provide a service and to tell our senior citizens, “Yes somebody cares” and we made a commitment in the 2012/2013 Budget that the ‘Yes We Care’ programme will be central to moving forward.”
The ‘Yes We Care’ Programme is in keeping with the Government’s strategy for social protection and poverty reduction as set out in its Growth and Social Protection Strategy (GSPS) approved by Cabinet in 2006 and updated in 2008 under the theme, ‘Leveraging Sustained Growth’.
The Prime Minister said further that his “Government in recent times has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in responding to disaster victims by helping them replace their beds, clothes and furniture so that they can live comfortable lives.”