GOLDING... says possibility programme needs boosting

THE issue of an identified 2,000 street children is causing concern in the Jamaica Labour Party, Opposition leader Bruce Golding told the Standing finance Committee (SFC) of Parliament last week.

Golding said the figure, published in the 2006 State of the World Children report done by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), required some examination.

He said that while the Possibility Programme under the Office of the Prime Minister was well-intentioned and had provided $12.4 million to train street children in various skills, "it is not a programme that is making any significant impact."

Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr Omar Davies, answering for Child Advocate Mary Clarke, said that although just over $12 million was provided in the 2006/07 budget for her office, there was an additional $18 million carried from 2005/06 which had not been spent because of Clarke's late appointment last year.

Not all programmes addressing children's problems are directed through the Advocate's office, Davies said. Some are run by non-governmental organisations.

"Her priority is to identify the causal factors, in terms of from whence the children came and why they are there," said Davies.

Clarke, he said, will work with all programmes.
But Golding was critical of the seeming lack of urgency in dealing with the problems of children.

"At the rate that the Possibility Programme is going, children are going to be coming on the streets faster than you are able to accommodate them in this programme. We really need to first of all get hold of them and just rescue them," Golding insisted

"The kind of things they are exposed to on the streets, the violence and the sexual abuse, we just need to get hold of them and put them under some sort of care and guidance."
And, Davies insisted: "As well as to get to the root causes."

Golding also asked that the Child Advocate take even a cursory look at some 274 children in correctional institutions, including reform schools, to assess the effectiveness of the rehabilitation process.

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