Minister Lalinie Gopal of Youth Development and Sports (JOS) wants children with disabilities to be structurally included in the Holiday Employment Project from now on. According to the minister, future editions must explicitly prevent this group from being left out.
“We say time and again: ‘leave no one behind, include everyone’,” Gopal said on Monday, September 21, during a field visit to several work groups at the Kennedy Internaat, the Blindencentrum and the Paramaribo-Zuidwest district commissioner’s office.
Fifty young people with disabilities are involved in the current project. According to the minister, the participants have shown that they are eager to actively contribute to society and receive the same opportunities as other young people.
Gopal says she heard directly from young people during her visit how important participation is to them. “Minister, I am happy that you have given us the opportunity. Because we too want to make that contribution to the development of Suriname, but we do not always get that chance,” she says she was told.
The young people also drew attention to bottlenecks, including problems with online registration for school bags. According to the minister, these signals will be taken into account when developing future policy.
“That is why it is important to be among the people, so that you hear what is going on and can respond to it,” Gopal said.
The minister described it as a first step in making the holiday work project more inclusive. “We started with fifty, but we will continue.” According to her, pupils of the Kennedy Stichting and the Blindencentrum have shown that they possess many abilities and talents.
“Those children want to make their contribution, so they must be given the opportunity. We have started and we will expand this,” the minister promised.
According to Gopal, many young people are satisfied that they were able to spend their holiday in a meaningful way while also earning money with which they can purchase school supplies, among other things.
According to her, several problems also arose during the implementation of the project, mainly concerning administrative and bureaucratic procedures. The ministry will evaluate these bottlenecks after completion to determine what adjustments are needed. “So far, everything has gone well and we hope it will also end well,” Gopal said.
