Unofficial transcript of remarks by the Honourable Adrian Forde, Minister of Youth and Community Empowerment, during the presentation of the Estimates for the Ministry
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Thank you, madam chair. This ministry has been given the task, certainly not an odious one, to ensure that we provide a safe and productive space for our young people; young persons in this country who has been crying out in the wilderness, who have been disillusioned by a poor sense that has not involved them and we want to touch them in a special way. We want to give them that once in a lifetime opportunity to have a paradigm.
And so we have decided to come up with programs that are fit for purpose. We want to open the door so that a bright future can walk in for young people and so madam chair, with the blessings of the prime minister of this country, you would have heard the Barbados Youth Advance Corps being espoused on August 15th - a new programme which would seek to incorporate and involve all those young people at the bottom of the spectrum. And certainly, those who would like to have a tangible stake in this country.
This programme, of course, would involve those between the age of 16 and 20. And we recognize as a government and my tracer department has done studies to show that out of the four thousand or so young people, persons that leave school every year, at least twenty nine hundred remain unemployed and disengaged coupled with the other five or so thousand that are already in society.
There is an old Maxim that says and speaks to the fact that the devil finds work for idle hands. In this ministry, we are going to ensure that the young people using, of course, their passion and imagination that they have not only a voice but a tangible space to develop their creative imagination. Of course, madam chair, almost everything great in this world has been created by our young people. And so we must give them the opportunity. We must scratch their minds with a new experience in such a way that they will never return to their old dimension. And that is the experience that we intend to share at the Youth Advance Corps where there have there they will have young persons, of course, in six week's residential component.
This component will seek to teach those young person's basic life skills (resilience, character-building) - those core values that are sorely lacking in today's youth as it relates to the society that they come from. After that six weeks component, there is going to be a training module designed specifically to attract the needs of our young people. We are not going to tailor-make programs for our young people. We are going to use their creativity, their desires, their imagination. So I'm happy to say today after two... where we would have passed out around three hundred and fifty or sixty persons, I am happy today to say to your madam chair and the entire country that a lot of those young persons are all over Barbados, training in the not only constructive industry and the normal courses that we would know but of course, madam chair in the agriculture science.
In the new sciences, the aquaponics and hydroponics, the aquaculture. Madam chair, these young persons have an interest in technology. They understand better than most of us in here the usage of technology and in this technological world, animation has become a big part of their conversation. And so this programme will offer courses in animation, virtual science, robotics of course, and there are some young people and I am happy to report today that are involved in coding. We have two young persons in this country working for Google as we know it and Amazon. These are the type of experiences that we must give our young people because, one of the things this country has as a resource, is our people. We may not have gold and bauxite like other countries, but certainly, we have to invest in what we have a make best of it.
And it is our young people that need to be able to build out Barbados and give us the type of resilience we need as a country. And so I'm happy also to report to this country that we have young persons who have shown interest and have asked to be part of the biodiverse projects that will help inform us and mitigate against the threats of global warming. We have young persons who are interested in biodiversity and are keen to be involved in a sea turtle project, that are interested in, of course, the green monkey exercise, and definitely, I know my colleagues will laugh when I say this, but there are some who are interested in being part of the programme which would seek to protect the endangered species, what we know as Phil Adaptiveness or the leave toge gecko.
And those are young persons who understand that it is the way how we treat to those things as like biodiversity and these projects that will pretty much determine our future and our near future as a country. And so, madam chair, I am happy to tell you that after the first phase of training, these young persons will certainly be involved in national projects because in the same way we are telling young persons that they will have to meet us halfway and we are going to invest in them, we are also saying to them that there's something called give back and you must be a part of building out Barbados.
So the national projects could be, for instance, madam chair, the building out of the hospital, painting of schools, being part of the labour market force, being involved in district emergency management, coastal zone management, being part of the cleaning up exercise that is happening to this country, because we believe in changing the aesthetics of Barbados.
We are saying that Barbados must be a clean place and there must be a cosmetic overhaul. But at the same time, we are also saying that the most active players in this conversation are our young people. So this is what the Barbados Youth Advance Corps is going to do for this country. It's going to help build out Barbados as we know it. And at the same time, it is going to give young persons the opportunity to live the Barbadian dream. And that's what we are saying as a government.
Gone are the days where we are only interested in show, paparazzi, glitz and glitter and glamour. Gone are the days where showmanship is the order of the day. We are saying that young persons in this country must have a tangible stake in the development of Barbados. And so our programmes must be able to encourage our young people to put their hands to the plough and become part of society and building this country.
In the same way, you will hear the Prime Minister say that many hands make light work. We are willing to work hand-in-glove with our young people. The antithesis of this, of course, is that no work make light hands too. So we must be able to engage our young people and find meaningful employment for them. And that is why I commend the member who went before me for the job start plus, because a lot of these young people will be able to filter into this programme.
We are also saying as a government that we are going to give young people the opportunity using their passion, they're our reserve potential to be able to do everything that they want in Barbados as long as it's positive. And of course, madam chair, there are those who we call the most vulnerable who are crying out like a voice in the wilderness; who for over the last 10 years lost 10 years as I may say, have not been part of the building out of Barbados.
We call those guys, the guys on the block. We believe as a government, the moral tests, the moral litmus test is how we treat to those at the bottom as well. You would have heard the prime minister and the entire cabinet and government. Spoke lucidly about what we have done as a government and if our first couple of weeks to come into office, we seen the worst decision ever made sense adult suffrage as it relates to education and tuition fees, but say maybe we will treat the doors at the top. We are seeing those at the bottom of the spectrum must be involve in this bar being an exercise in a barbarian dream and sword. This what we call the block by block. Guys, we have started a program called Building Blocks because we believe that these small blocks. That are built as a foundation is what will grow and develop this country and those same youngsters. They may not have the academic skills and qualifications like those at the top of the spectrum, but what they have is a creative imagination.
And I'm happy to report to the country today, that we have start building in a literal way, four blocks around Barbados, one in the Back Ivy, one in Bonnets Brittons Hill, one in Silver Hill of course, then there is one in Parkinsons Field and I'm happy to say that not only is there a sense of ownership and excitement, amongst those youngsters, but of course there is a sense of community involvement and altruism where persons from all over the community come together to lay those blocks.
We are going to build up those youngsters, not only in a literal way in terms of providing commercial spaces and allowing enterprise of course using the trust loans because they must understand that they have to walk not in front or behind, but at our side as a government in this journey. So we are saying that this exercise, this block-preneurship that we are doing, is going to create an atmosphere for commercial activity allowing these same youngsters that were once in deviant behaviour and delinquent behaviour to be involved in wholesome exercises.
We are going to scratch their minds with a new experience so they will never walk and go back to their old dimensions. That is what we are going to do as a government. In the community department, of course, we have just put a sum of money for the repairs and building out of the community centres. There's a new programme, of course, in the community department and everybody in Barbados, those who are interested in the creative arts, would have transfixed their eyes of course, to our Baje to the World talent show because one of the things that we believe is that there is a pool of creative talent in Barbados. And so, Madam Chair, we have decided that this talent must not only be seen in the four corners of Barbados but must bless the entire world so that Barbados would be recognized for what it is in terms of having that talent.
We are saying to Barbadians to bring their creative imagination, bring their creative talent. We are going to infuse it as a government and we are going to allow Barbados to be the shining light in the world, the country, the beacon, the mecca of the Western Hemisphere as we know it. But we understand fully that communities can only do it if there is a symbiosis of what happens at the bottom in terms of the youth and those who we consider the elderly. There must be mentorship programs. There must be active community groups. There must be Trojans in the community who are responsible for taking care of our nation's children.
I am saying that I want to give this country the calm and rested assurance that these programmes that we have before you are going to change and transform the lives of the young people in this country and of course, regenerate a community interest, a sense of ...and activism like never seen before because we believe that Barbados at this point in time requires each and every single person to come on board on this fight and we believe that if we lose one madam chair, we lose one too many.
So with those few words, I am asking members to comment and let us have meaningful discussion about the way forward for the ministry of Youth and certain Community Empowerment. I thank you.
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