WORK WITH US!

One of the biggest mistakes government sometimes makes is not working with civil society organisations, which are already on the ground doing a lot of the work that government keeps promising to do.

This is the view of Founder and President of the Barbados Vagrants and Homeless Society (BVHS), Kemar Saffrey, who has raised a number of questions about a 24-hour facility Chairman of the National Assistance Board (NAB), Senator Rev. Dr. David Durant, has been quoted as saying will be coming on stream, since the Clyde Gollop Centre for men serves primarily as a night shelter.

Stressing that the BVHS – which has vast knowledge and experience in dealing with the homeless – has been advocating for some years now for a 24-hour shelter, and has even gone as far as to include such a call in a manifesto sent recently to all political parties and the media as well, Saffrey queried why the NAB would not seek to partner with the BVHS on such an initiative which mirrors that of the BVHS, and which it has sent to government time and time again in a number of detailed proposals.

“I think one of the biggest mistakes that governments sometimes make, is that they don’t work with the civil society organisations. They want to do it themselves and when they do it themselves, it never starts or in some cases, it fails along the way because there are persons on the ground doing these programmes longer than government looks to
implement them,” Saffrey pointed out.

“So if they work with existing organisations, it would be more beneficial because we have the statistics, the clients… we have all the information we need pertaining to helping these [homeless] individuals. And if we are doing it at such a small pace at our small office, we think then, with collaboration, much more could be done. So we would welcome any move by government to partner, whether it be those in government, or the government to come, or the government to stay, because it is much bigger than us. It is about the homeless community at large,” Saffrey stressed.

Suggesting that homeless women must also be factored into the equation and not only men, as there has been an increase in the number of homeless women on the street, Saffrey called on the present government to give specifics as to when the actual 24-hour shelter will come on-stream.

Saffrey also remained adamant that the NAB should not only look to house homeless men at the Clyde Gollop Centre and also look to introduce another 35 to 40 capacity centre as purported, but work along with the BVHS with its rehabilitative programmes to ensure that men can transition from the Centre and get back into mainstream society, thereby freeing up space for others to come off the streets and also have their lives transformed. (RSM)