Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has urged students in her Siparia constituency to view education as their “ladder out of poverty” as she launched a back-to-school supplies initiative benefiting more than 1,700 children.

Speaking at the distribution ceremony in Siparia on Tuesday, Persad-Bissessar said she understood the struggles faced by many families because she once sat in the same position as the children receiving assistance.

“I know what it is like to grow up poor. My parents worked hard, but we had very little. What we did have was love and an unshakable belief that education was the way out of poverty,” she told the gathering of over 120 students and their parents.