When Barbadians in the diaspora return home next year for the We Gatherin’ celebration there will be two major projects to which they will be asked to contribute.
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said that the public hospitals and a national beautification project had been selected as the focus for charitable donations during the year-long event.
The public hospitals comprise the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the Psychiatric Hospital, the Geriatric Hospital and the district hospitals.
Speaking at a ceremony where she received a $200,000 donation of medical equipment from the Barbados International Business Association (BIBA) last Wednesday, Ms. Mottley said that BIBA’s gift was an example of how the give-back initiative would work.
She stated: “I am therefore happy that BIBA and others are continuing to play their part because as we adjust this fiscal year and in the next fiscal year, we will not have the same luxury that we hope to have three or four or five years from now.”
Prime Minister Mottley declared: “We can have a scatter-shot approach as to how we focus and rebuild this country, or we can have a strategic approach. My Government chooses a strategic approach.”
The beautification project, she said, would include the National Botanical Gardens and span across the island.
She explained that residents of Barbados are also being invited to get involved because “we believe that the collective effort of Barbadians at home with Barbadians coming home will make that definable difference”.
At the local level, Prime Minister Mottley said persons will be encouraged to support their primary and secondary schools as well as their churches in the drive to bring everyone on board.
She assured: “This Government is going to work day and night to ensure the success of the economic recovery transformation of Barbados because we know that the people of Barbados deserve it.
“And we know that the people of Barbados will work towards it even if we have to continue to refocus and to remind people of the mission at hand.”