IN NOVEMBER, the Government announced that it had set aside $140 million for the annual Special Employment Programme, more popularly known as the Christmas Work Programme.
The funds, Minister of Information, Senator Burchell Whiteman said, would finance the cleaning of roadsides and drains and other improvement projects, and would be disbursed under the Social and Economic Support Programme (SESP).
PROGRAMME
The SESP provides seasonal work for the jobless, and Members of Parliament and councillors were given until November 17 to submit projects. The programme ends in mid-December.
Dr. Paul Robertson, who gave details of this year's work programme to the House of Representatives, reminded MPs that the funds were meant to bring "cheer."
"I have to remind MPs that this programme is intended to provide seasonal employment for the unemployed and the underemployed in order to ensure that the marginalised citizens of our country are able to bring cheer to, and to provide the expected provisions for their families," said Robertson, Minister of Development.
POVERTY ALLEVIATION
"The SESP is about poverty alleviation and we as parliamentarians must always be cognisant of this objective."
On Wednesday, The Gleaner captured on camera the actual dispensing of jobs and work in progress in the core of central Kingston. More than 100 residents from Admiral Town and Jones Town came seeking the job of bushing a lot and the bank of a gully located in the vicinity of the Admiral Town Police Station.
