From left: Interim President of the Students’ Guild at the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College, Kristian Trotman; Minister of Education, Santia Bradshaw; Acting Principal, Ramona Archer-Bradshaw; and Co-ordinator of the programme at the College, Gerry Haynes, speak on several aspects of the National Give Back initiative.
AS the COVID-19 pandemic reduces the
capacity of those institutions getting involved in the Give Back programme, Education Minister Santia Bradshaw is urging others to come forward.
Speaking at Friday’s launch of the programme at the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College, she outlined while the response of students has been positive to the initiative, more could be done in terms of helping to build this country with society-minded individuals, if more community and non-governmental organisations signed up.
So far, the programme has 150 entities registered.
According to the minister, due to COVID-19 social distancing protocols, smaller numbers of volunteers were now being utilised and “therefore it’s had a significant impact on the number of the entities that would otherwise have been able to create large opportunities for a wider cross-section of our people”.
In spite of the challenges, Bradshaw said out-of-the-box thinking was now coming to the fore, stressing that volunteering should not be pigeon-holed to certain traditional areas like health and social activism, but should encompass the environment and others.
In addition, she suggested the creation of new organisations by individuals and by tertiary institutions, including Erdiston, the Barbados Community College and The University of the West Indies, “to be able to give people the opportunity to serve in as many different capacities during the volunteer period”.
“Institutions have to see themselves as leading the charge of giving back. It’s not just simply about having students sign up for other entities,” she noted, adding: “The students … if they want to create an entity that then can be registered, they can then work with partners to be able to develop programmes going forward.”
Co-ordinator of Erdiston’s Give Back programme, Gerry Haynes, stated 145 students have already signed up out of the 373 eligible.
“Our volunteer areas include but are not limited to ushering at our events, gardening, singing in the choir, education, library assistants and clerical duties… I believe this programme allows students to have a better appreciation of the day-to-day functions of the institutions and add value to their educational experience by way of newly acquired skills,” he explained. (JMB)