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Minister of Social Care Constituency Empowerment, Urban and Rural Development, Christopher Sinckler??
The LIME Connect Barbados Project, which will be conducted by the National Disabilities Unit (NDU), is receiving high praise from Minister of Social Care Constituency Empowerment, Urban and Rural Development, Christopher Sinckler.
While addressing the media at a press briefing at the Horatio Cooke Auditorium of the National Union of Public Workers Headquarters, last Friday, Mr. Sinckler lauded the project, which will cater to blind and visually impaired persons.
The Minister stated: "It is the Government’s policy to create a sustainable basis for the empowerment of the vulnerable in the community through viable work and social activities. To this end, the Ministry of Social Care, Constituency Empowerment, Urban and Rural Development, through the National Disabilities Unit, has been working tirelessly to provide meaningful projects and programmes to develop opportunities for blind/visually impaired persons in [the] Barbadian society."
The Social Care Minister said that the computer skills which will be taught in the Connect Barbados Project would provide work opportunities for blind and visually impaired individuals, and enable them to further their educational development. He also added that the programme was designed to assist participants to acquire a level of certification which would be acceptable in the working community.
"It is recognised that it is not enough to just introduce computer skills, but that added impetus must be given to the programme by way of encouraging employers -both in the public and private sectors – to recognise these skills as viable and on par with mainstream computer training," Minister Sinckler maintained.
LIME Country Manager, Alex McDonald, revealed that the initiative totaled approximately $100,000. He noted that this figure not only included the price of the hardware and software, but also the cost of labour.?? Mr. McDonald stated, however, that LIME was fully committed to the programme and opined that the persons for whom it was designed would fully benefit.????????????????
The LIME Connect Barbados Project, which was originally launched in April 2009, will entail training in Microsoft Word, the Internet and other computer programmes.??sharifa.medford@barbados.gov.bb