Social agencies call for stronger support for families and children

So­cial ser­vice or­gan­i­sa­tions are call­ing for in­creased fund­ing in the Oc­to­ber 12 na­tion­al bud­get, warn­ing that in­ad­e­quate sup­port is leav­ing chil­dren’s homes strug­gling to meet ba­sic costs and lim­it­ing ser­vices for vul­ner­a­ble fam­i­lies.

Leela Ramdeen, di­rec­tor of the Cre­do Foun­da­tion for Jus­tice, is seek­ing greater in­vest­ment in the so­cial sec­tor, in­clud­ing sup­port for par­ents, chil­dren with spe­cial ed­u­ca­tion­al needs, vic­tims of gen­der-based vi­o­lence and young peo­ple leav­ing res­i­den­tial care.

Ramdeen, whose foun­da­tion is based on Nel­son Street, Port-of-Spain, al­so wants the Gov­ern­ment to ex­am­ine whether ex­ist­ing al­lo­ca­tions are be­ing used ef­fec­tive­ly, rather than sim­ply in­creas­ing the sums as­signed to min­istries.