|
| |
Contact:
John Emmanuel
Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - As the Ministry of Social Transformation,
Culture and Local Government continues preparations for the second phase of the
Comfort 2000 programme, dubbed Comfort 2000-II, officials say valuable lessons
have been learnt under the first phase of the programme.
Several communities island-wide received funding under the initiative instituted
in 2000, as part of activities designed to build national consciousness and
awareness in keeping with Independence celebrations. The Ministry of Social
Transformation says, given the successes and difficulties experienced with
certain projects, the next phase of the programme will be better tailored to the
needs of individual communities.
“What Comfort 2000 has done for us, is that it has given us a yard stick in
terms of determining those communities that are in a state of readiness to take
over their own affairs,” said Jacinta St. Helen, Permanent Secretary in the
Ministry of Social Transformation. She says that much was discernable in the
fact that the programme flourished in certain communities whereas it faltered in
others.
“This therefore allowed us to identify the weaknesses and strengths of certain
communities and now, as we get ready to implement phase two, we have been able
to identify training programmes to support them in terms of planning the
development of their respective areas,” said St. Helen.
One of the problems which faced many of the original projects, was that of weak
support committees, which lead to many of them falling by the wayside. Officials
say, under the new phase, the Ministry of Social Transformation, Culture and
Local Government will examine the possibility of giving supervision of the
projects to the various town and village councils.
|
