Human Services and Social Security Minister Dr Vindhya Persaud (right) handing over a certificate to Hannah Joseph
Twenty-five persons living with disabilities recently graduated from the Human Services and Social Security Ministry’s specialised computer skills training courses, Job Access with Speech (JAWS) for the visually impaired and social media marketing.
These new graduates were drawn from Regions Four (Demerara-Mahaica) and Five (Mahaica-Berbice) and join the other 269 persons who completed the skills training programme over the past year, bringing the total to 294 trained individuals thus far.
“The aim is to make persons living with disabilities a very valuable part of every aspect of development and we want you to go and be part of the labour market, part of the workforce and we want you to have your dreams become a reality,” Human Services Minister Dr Vindhya Persaud said to the graduates.
The graduation ceremony was held at the soon-to-be-completed Learning Lab, another Human Services Ministry initiative aimed to serve as a training and empowerment centre for persons with disabilities.
“While we were waiting on the facility, we didn’t wait to train so persons were trained across various regions, 294 of them, and we did the graduation for them in Regions Four and Five and we will be presenting the certificates to the others,” Persaud said.
Natasha Basdeo, one of the graduates, shared that this programme will benefit her as she continues to seek employment.
“I am proud of myself because I went through the computer course, and I have a certificate. I learnt a lot from the course, and I think it is a good thing the Ministry is doing. It is very good for me, and I improved a lot so this will help me to gain employment,” Basdeo said.
Another graduate, Hannah Joseph explained that this Ministry initiative is “very helpful” and will do much for persons living with disabilities.
“I want to thank the Minister for all she is doing for us and I want to encourage all persons living with disabilities to take up the opportunity and get qualified,” Joseph said.
Meanwhile, Odessa Blair who completed the social media marketing course, highlighted that the course was very informative. “I have to say hats off to [the Human Services Ministry] for including persons with disabilities in their training and making us equipped to make an equal contribution in the world of work,” Blair said.
The Learning Lab seeks to continue these training programmes by equipping persons with disabilities with technical and vocational skills so that they can be more employable, with some of the programmes including Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and garment construction.
As of Friday, the facility was 95 per cent complete and Minister Persaud sought input on its progress from stakeholders such as Programme Coordinator for the Guyana Society for the Blind Ganesh Singh and Sabane McIntosh of the Deaf Association of Guyana.
The stakeholders commended the work that Minister Persaud is doing to provide resources for persons with disabilities across the country, adding that the Learning Lab will be transformative and have a significant impact on these persons.
