President Irfaan Ali on Saturday said that the Government will continue to roll out programmes to benefit all children, including those from children’s homes.
During a special Christmas ceremony for young people from over a dozen children’s homes, the President said that in order to ensure that the children are given opportunities, he has asked the Ministry of Education to pay special emphasis to their education, including at the tertiary level.
“So all the children from the homes who will finish CXC will get a scholarship under the GOAL programme to pursue your studies.”
The President implored the youngsters to take advantage of the opportunities.
The work of his Office, the Office of the First Lady and the Ministry of Human Services over the last year were also highlighted.
“In the last year, we have been able to support many of the homes, many of the children. We have been able to get more corporate support to make your life easier.”
He also told the children that in the coming year, the Government will be working on many new programmes to enhance and enrich their lives. One of those programmes will be the nurturing of talented youngsters.
“We also want to ensure that children in the homes who have special talents that we can identify those children and we can also give them opportunities… In many of the homes, you have children who are gifted; some gifted in sport, some gifted in different talents, artistic talents. So we also want to work on supporting children in the homes who have special talents”, he said.
The President said that different teams will be dispatched to other homes across regions for similar exercises.