|
| |
Contact:
John Emmanuel
Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - Patients at the Soufriere Hospital will soon
be able to benefit from a new physiotherapy unit set up at the medical facility
via the assistance of the Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF). Final preparations are
being put in place for the official handing over later this month, of the over
$150,000 unit, which was formally an old laboratory.
Community Liaison Officer with the Basic Needs Trust Fund, Mathias Burt says
patients have also begun benefiting from the installation of several water
heater systems, which in the past crippled the operations of the paediatric and
seniors’ wards of the hospital. “The hospital administration is quite pleased
with the work which has been undertaken by the Fund. We spent over $50,000
putting this unit in place and frankly we hope to spend more money in Soufriere
in the coming months,” said Burt.
According to Burt, “health is one of the critical components of the programme
together with water provision, education and skills training. Based on that
heavy health agenda we carry out renovations and repairs to health centres and
assist in providing clean water systems for health centres along with much
needed equipment.”
The BNTF Liaison Officer says sadly one of the Fund’s principal backers, the
Caribbean Development Bank, does not support primary health care initiatives and
as a result the island’s main general hospital, Victoria cannot benefit. However
he indicated that other health assistance packages are available via various
loan facilities from the CDB. The BNTF has also employed a consultant and
contractor to erect a pedestrian bridge at Zennon in Soufriere. That project is
to be completed within the next two weeks.
Meantime, as the Fund prepares to begin a new series of programmes for the next
five years commencing in the month of June 2003, a final draft document ‘A
Poverty Reduction Action Plan’ has been drawn up. The plan is just one of the
many mechanisms, designed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the
BNTF at poverty alleviation.
“We are now putting together an operations manual that will allow the BNTF in
the next five years to extend its tentacles all across the country to alleviate
poverty and to assist people in empowering themselves,” Burt explained. Funding
for the BNTF comes from the Government of St. Lucia and the regional lending
agency the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). The CDB provides grant-funds
totalling 80% while the Government provides counterpart funds amounting to 20%.
|
