By Monique Heburn, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
HAITIAN REFUGEES are to get vocational training to prepare them for their return home.
Dean Peart, Minister of Land and the Environment, disclosed this while outlining upgrading plans for the old army barracks at Montpelier, St. James, where Haitian refugees are to be housed. They are now in the eastern parish of Portland, from which they are to be transferred to Montpelier.
"It is important that we consider their development," Mr. Peart said on Saturday. "What I want to do is to sit down with Mr. Robert Gregory, executive director of HEART Trust/NTA, and work out a skills-training programme for the refugees."
There are buildings on the Montpelier compound that could be transformed into training areas, he said. "If they are here for another six or eight months to a year, when they leave Jamaica they will be empowered."
The meeting was attended by officials from the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), the St. James Parish Council, the Food For the Poor charity, the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce, and religious groups.
"We have everything together and the co-operation of the leaders in St. James is overwhelming," he said.
Councillor Noel Donaldson, Mayor of Montego Bay, said: "We have an obligation to assist Haiti in their time of need. St. James has played this role before and we are willing and able to assist."
