Make Disabled citizens a priority

President of the Clement Payne Movement, David Comissiong, says Barbados should be a society in which disabled citizens take first priority.

However, he lamented that “far too often in Barbados citizens who are most in need tend to get the least assistance.

“We should make the effort to make sure that these citizens get what they need to enable them to function as efficiently as possible in our society. And economic hard times should never, never be a reason for cutting back on assistance or provision for citizens in need.

“We must always insist on Barbados being a humane and civilised society and therefore when things get hard and sacrifices have to be made, you find other areas in which to make sacrifices, but you never sacrifice the welfare of citizens who are vulnerable or who are most in need of the society’s assistance,” he stressed.

Comissiong’s comments came as he addressed yesterday’s press conference where he and attorney-at-law Edmund Hinkson jointly presented a cheque in the sum of $2 500 to the Barbados Association for the Blind and Deaf at the Clement Payne Cultural Centre, Crumpton Street in The City.

Hinkson was Comissiong’s lawyer in the case which he brought against the Minister of Immigration, the Attorney General and the Chief Immigration Officer last year whereby preventing government from imposing the Immigration (Biometrics) Regulations 2015, also known as the fingerprinting regulations.

Hinkson explained that the money given during the press conference was a portion of the legal costs awarded when the case was won. He said the day’s presentation was a fulfilment of a decision taken that any legal cost awarded would be given to charitable organisations.

The Director of the Council for the Disabled further said that prior to Wednesday, some of the funds awarded were presented to the Barbados Vagrants and Homeless Society (BVHS) by the President of the Clement Payne Movement.

President of the Barbados Association for the Blind and Deaf, Elviston Maloney, who was on hand at the Clement Payne Cultural Centre, thanked Comissiong and Hinkson for their generosity. He pointed out that money will be used for the Association’s educational programme, which was started back in 2011.