Learning Lab aims to lift persons with disabilities out of poverty – Minister

…95% completed

The Learning Lab, a Human Services and Social Security Ministry initiative that aims to serve as a training and empowerment centre for persons with disabilities, is currently 95 per cent complete.
Human Services Minister, Dr Vindhya Persaud on Friday engaged with several stakeholders during an inspection of the facility at Mahaica, East Coast of Demerara.
“This is a facility that involves a lot of stakeholders and as we move to completion and the formal opening of this facility, we invited some of the stakeholders to be fully involved in how we make this facility functional and operational,” Dr Persaud said. “We want to ensure [that] when the centre is fully set up, we cater for all the varieties of disabilities so that persons will feel comfortable in the environment.”
The Learning Lab seeks to train 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.
Programme coordinator for the Guyana Society for the Blind, Ganesh Singh commended the Human Services Minister for her commitment to this project and its progress thus far.
“What we are seeing will definitely lift persons with disabilities out of poverty… This is really making the lives of persons with disabilities a better one, a more meaningful one and are able to claim their rightful place in society,” Singh said. “I am very pleased with what I would have seen and what I have heard from the Minister, we have come a far way…the Minister’s approach of inclusivity is one we embrace…. including people who are the beneficiaries in the process of planning so that everything is as good as it could be for implementation.”
He added that this facility is transformative and will have a significant impact on the lives of people living with disabilities as there is now a space for not just training and recreational purposes but also upskilling.
“As we have seen since [Minister Persaud] assumed the portfolio, a lot of what is in the Guyana Persons with Disabilities Act 2010 as it relates to the social services portfolio would have been implemented,” Singh said.
Sabane McIntosh of the Deaf Association of Guyana shared that this facility is a “wonderful start” to providing persons with disabilities with a space for growth and empowerment, and hopes that initiatives like these continue.
“It is a beautiful building, very clean, we were given a guided tour and access for the blind, deaf and wheelchair users is everywhere,” McIntosh said. “When this building comes to life it is going to be a fantastic social space which is badly needed for persons with disabilities.”
This facility is in keeping with the Government’s commitment to aiding persons with disabilities across the country.
In 2022, a one-off cash grant of $100,000 was given to the parents of children living with disabilities, while this year, persons 18 years and older living with permanent disabilities are benefiting from public assistance of $16,000 per month for life.
In another effort, several students have been also been identified as requiring Special Education Needs (SEN) services and as such, over 700 persons, as of last year, started training in SEN services to enhance the learning methods provided in certain schools.