$100K cash grant for children with disabilities will be distributed next week – Dr. Persaud

Starting next week, the government’s one-off $100,000 cash grant for children living with disabilities will be distributed across the country, according to Human Services Minister Dr. Vindhya Persaud.

Minister Persaud, while responding to a question posed to her in the National Assembly on Monday, said that her ministry is focused on providing much aid to persons living with disabilities in Guyana.

And as part of that focus, this special grant will be distributed to those children in need all across the country.

“It is an inclusive distribution, it’s one that caters to the needs of our children who are living with disabilities and provides necessary relief to the parents who are the caregivers and providing the level of care that children need,” the Human Services Minister underscored.

The provision of this grant was announced by President Dr. Irfaan Ali in June. Since then, the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, through the National Commission on Disability (NCD), has been registering the children expected to benefit.

The President also announced plans to ensure that all children with a disability are automatically registered to receive the monthly public assistance and transportation support for them to get to and from learning institutions and the training of teachers to deliver special needs tutoring.

Aside from this grant, the minister also noted that a raft of much-needed assistance programmes, including training programmes, have been rolled out by her ministry.

Dr. Persaud also said that the number of people benefiting from the government’s $14,000 public assistance programme is also expected to nearly double. Another 7,700 people, including children, will join the 8,000 persons with disabilities who are already benefiting.

This additional group of beneficiaries will benefit from a total of $646 million, Dr. Persaud said.