Sascha Wil­son

It is not enough to dis­cuss the im­ple­men­ta­tion of leg­is­la­tion in T&T for peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ty at the Com­mon­wealth Heads of Gov­ern­ment Meet­ing (CHOGM). So said chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer of the Na­tion­al Cen­tre for Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties (NCPD) Bev­er­ly Beck­les as she briefly ad­dressed del­e­gates of the CHOGM Peo­ple's Fo­rum who toured the San Fer­nan­do fa­cil­i­ty yes­ter­day. She said T&T had a na­tion­al pol­i­cy on peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties, but what was need­ed was the im­ple­men­ta­tion of leg­is­la­tion. "We can't just talk about it at the Com­mon­wealth Heads of Gov­ern­ment Meet­ing and wait two years again," said Beck­les.

Dur­ing the tour, Mer­tle Friester, Lena Free­man and Deb­o­rah Reid, mem­bers of the Com­mon­wealth Coun­tries League, were fas­ci­nat­ed by the work be­ing done at the NCPD. They were es­pe­cial­ly im­pressed by the em­broi­dery work be­ing done by a boy. "This is a hid­den gem that needs more ad­ver­tis­ing," said Friester.

"We are blown away by the wood­work and pro­gramme set up," said Free­man. Giv­ing the del­e­gates an in­sight on the func­tions of the NCDP, pro­gramme man­ag­er Keisha Fanum Mo­hammed said the or­gan­i­sa­tion spe­cialised in wood­work and al­so did print­ery. She said the cen­tre was con­tract­ed to do the CHOGM bags for the Peo­ple's Fo­rum.