Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment, Dwight Sutherland; Director of Youth in that Ministry, Cleviston Hunte; and Permanent Secretary in that Ministry, Yolande Howard; as well as Member of Parliament for St. Michael East, Trevor Prescod with the entrepreneurs who were presented with keys to their kiosks yesterday.
Sixteen entrepreneurs are now owners of kiosks provided to them through Phase One of government’s Building Blocks Project.
Of this number, three females on Friday officially signed documents and were presented with keys to their establishments, which are situated in The Ivy, St. Michael. The presentation was done by Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment, Dwight Sutherland; and Member of Parliament for St. Michael East, Trevor Prescod.
As part of the Project, entrepreneurs from Silver Hill in Christ Church; Bonnetts, The Ivy and Parkinson Field all in St. Michael now own kiosks where they will ply their trade and earn a living.
Addressing the audience, Sutherland explained the Project “is a comprehensive, community-based, social intervention programme strategy that we have created to solve unemployment”. He complimented the three ladies for seeking to start their own businesses and encouraged them to be role models to others. Sutherland also urged them to be mentors and to seek to grow their businesses as time goes on.
“As you enter these doors from when we cease the pause on February 17th, I want you to bring along other members of this community with you.... I want you to be a shining light and an example of how young people are supposed to operate [and] own their own business. Teach them the value of having a business and also teach them the value of being disciplined and creating lifelong skills that can take them beyond these shores.”
Also addressing the gathering was the Member of Parliament for St. Michael East, Trevor Prescod, who lauded government and the Minister for “opening up small businesses all across Barbados”. He too encouraged the day’s recipients to develop and expand their businesses in coming years.
“I am hoping that as a result of what you are doing here and the power that you have invested in the hands of these people, these people will be able to develop a higher quality of life coming out of this. Your children should never be in the position that you are in or not you have failed.
“You must be able to take the family forward; out of this the next generation must be better than you because that is your responsibility, that is the authority and the expectation that is vested in you by your foreparents. And when you come here and you open up a business, when you leave here, I want you to own a supermarket.”
(MG)