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PRF & Nurses Association Sign M.O.U.

Contact: John Emmanuel

Tuesday, September 10, 2002 – The links between proper health care and poverty alleviation were further cemented on Monday, September, 9, 2002 when the Poverty Reduction Fund (PRF) and the St. Lucia Nurses Association signed a memorandum of Understanding.

The signing took place against the backdrop of a one-day workshop on Programme Reporting and Budgeting, designed to build and strengthen the capacity of non-government organizations, community based organizations and agencies which deliver health care and are committed to improving living conditions and lifestyles in poor and marginalized communities.

“As a strategic approach to addressing poverty and dealing with communities and community demands, we at the PRF have made a conscious effort to utilize the services of agencies and organizations that on an everyday basis collaborate and work with communities as well as provide services to communities and really deliver the kinds of interventions and actions that we all know will impact on their overall standing of living,” said Donavan Williams - Executive Director of the Poverty Reduction Fund.

Chief Health Planner in the Ministry of Health, Human Services and Family Affairs, Darrel Montrope explained that although the workshop would not immediately provide money to poor St. Lucians and make the un-healthy, health over night, it signified a step in the right direction. The linkage between health and poverty reduction he noted could not be over emphasised.

According to Montrope, “health is development, health is poverty reduction.” The Nurses Association he indicated had already made the connection in terms of what nurses see on a day to day basis. “The poor are more likely to be unhealthy and their bouts of illness cost them even more. Many sectors are important to national development but health is a very peculiar type of sector in that you can never been too healthy. Unlike education in that once you become literate you never go back, today you are health and the next minute you drop dead,” said Montrope.

Monday’s workshop also included the launching of the Community Health Care Promotion, Education and Treatment Programme.

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