KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Government of Jamaica’s flagship social protection programme – the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) – will undergo an overhaul of its services to better serve the most vulnerable citizens.

This directive was recently announced by Prime Minister Andrew Holness and forms one part of the government’s thrust to ensure an improvement of social welfare for citizens.

The PATH programme was introduced in 2002 to provide social assistance for individuals from vulnerable households such as children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, persons living with disabilities and elderly dependents.

The programme has a hyper-focus on ensuring the health of vulnerable Jamaicans by supporting young, pregnant and nursing women and elderly members of low-income households in taking advantage of preventive health services provided by government healthcare facilities.

Further to the Prime Minister’s directive, Minister of Labour and Social Security Pearnel Charles Jr, under whose ministry the programme is administered, in a statement on Wednesday underscored that “a critical objective of PATH is to ensure that children from low-income households are provided with the resources to complete their primary and secondary education and receive support for post-secondary and tertiary education to make them employable, and by doing so, empower them to break the cycle of poverty that comes with low levels of education.”

Through joint government efforts with the Ministry of Education and Youth and the Ministry of Health and Wellness, the Labour Ministry offers social support to vulnerable groups using several programmes.

PATH is chief among these and provides bi-monthly cash grants to beneficiaries based on their need. Additionally, beneficiaries receive further support in the form of back-to-school grants for primary and secondary school beneficiaries, access to the Education Ministry’s School Feeding Programme, where children on PATH are provided with lunches free of cost and financial assistance with CXC examination fees and tertiary-level studies.

Permanent Secretary in the Labour and Social Security Ministry, Collette Roberts Risden, implored Jamaicans to learn more about the benefits of PATH.

“Over 20 years ago, our technical team at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, guided by research, designed PATH to help our neediest citizens and that mandate has not changed. In fact, we want to expand the programme so more Jamaicans can benefit and uplift themselves. We’re therefore inviting those who are interested to visit their parish office and apply for assistance for their families,” Risden shared.

While there is no application cost or forms to be filled out, applicants are encouraged to provide all the necessary documents and answer the questions asked by the representative honestly to complete the assessment.