Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices, Sen­a­tor the Ho­n­ourable Don­na Cox, re­ceived a cour­tesy call to­day from Ms. Abbe­gail Nan­dalal, Con­sul Pub­lic Af­fairs and Cul­ture, Mi­a­mi Con­sulate, at the Min­istry’s Head of­fice on St. Vin­cent Street, Port of Spain.

They dis­cussed op­por­tu­ni­ties for ex­change pro­grammes and ini­tia­tives, greater col­lab­o­ra­tion to ad­dress so­cial chal­lenges faced by the vul­ner­a­ble as well as so­cial dis­place­ment and the needs of the vul­ner­a­ble and in­di­gent in Trinidad and To­ba­go. De­tails fol­low in this press re­lease from the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices:

Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices, Sen­a­tor the Ho­n­ourable Don­na Cox, to­day re­ceived a cour­tesy call from Ms. Abbe­gail Nan­dalal, Con­sul Pub­lic Af­fairs and Cul­ture, Mi­a­mi Con­sulate, at the Min­istry’s Head of­fice on St Vin­cent Street, Port of Spain. The meet­ing in­clud­ed cor­dial dis­cus­sions on op­por­tu­ni­ties for ex­change pro­grammes and ini­tia­tives as well as greater col­lab­o­ra­tion to ad­dress so­cial chal­lenges faced by the vul­ner­a­ble in our coun­try.

Among items dis­cussed were so­cial dis­place­ment and the needs of the vul­ner­a­ble and in­di­gent in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The meet­ing al­so formed part of the Min­is­ter’s on­go­ing strat­e­gy to form al­liances and col­lab­o­rate with var­i­ous Mis­sions and Em­bassies to to­wards a more re­spon­sive and mul­ti­fac­eted so­cial ser­vices de­liv­ery. The Min­is­ter took the op­por­tu­ni­ty to share some of her own past ex­pe­ri­ences and ideas while served in New York.

Ac­cord­ing to Min­is­ter Cox, “This meet­ing was quite time­ly be­cause of the Gov­ern­ment’s fo­cus on dig­i­tal­iza­tion of Gov­ern­ment Ser­vices. The Min­istry is quite pleased to fa­cil­i­tate this ex­change of ideas and ex­per­tise, which we be­lieve will add val­ue to our ef­forts in cre­at­ing a more sus­tain­able so­cial safe­ty net sys­tem.” Ms. Nan­dalal was very hap­py to re­ceive some per­ti­nent ad­vice from Min­is­ter Cox and to ex­change ideas al­so.

The meet­ing end­ed with a brief pre­sen­ta­tion to Ms. Nan­dalal by Min­is­ter Cox. The Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices re­mains com­mit­ted to proac­tive­ly ex­plor­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties to en­sure that no one is left be­hind.