“Fix your business.”
The advice given by Minister of Culture and Community Development Michelle Benjamin at the Community Outreach in Penal on Saturday.
The initiative brought together residents and government agencies for a day of connection, support and service delivery.
“And again, I want to make sure and ask you to go from desk to desk. Ask questions. because today you don’t have to find gas, you don’t have to catch a taxi. Everything you need is under this one roof.”
Minister of Culture and Community Development Michelle Benjamin as she addressed the residents who turned out to the Community outreach in Penal on Saturday.
The initiative united residents and government agencies for a day focused on engagement, assistance, and the delivery of essential services.
Minister Benjamin therefore encouraged the residents to take advantage of the unique opportunity.
“Today you have over 41 agencies under one roof. That in itself is a great accomplishment. So, for instance, if you have an issue that overlaps with another agency, you have the unique opportunity to solve that issue here today. And again, I want to thank the regional corporations that came together with my ministry to make this initiative a success.”
Chairman of the Penal/Debe Corporation Alderman Gowtam Maharaj welcomed the initiative, noting that both tangible and intangible services were being offered.
“The social services, the services that people are in need of in terms of support, mental health support, where to lean when you need a shoulder to lean on, the pension services, the services that deal with culture, community development, health and agriculture, all of it that is so much needed in these areas, our people are very happy.”
Representative from the Nutrition Dietetics Department of the Southwest Regional Health Authority Christopher Nathaniel said one of the important topics discussed by his team was the ‘healthy plate method’
“This is where we focus on having half plate vegetables, right? This could be cooked or raw
vegetables, right? So things like bodhi, bhaji, pumpkin cooked where any raw vegetables could be
things like lettuce, greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, those things as a fresh salad. Our next quarter
that we want to focus on would be like a protein sources that would be things like your chicken
your meat your fish your eggs your peas and beans right we do want to incorporate protein in our
diet as well and this last quarter would have been our starchy foods.”
The Penal Community Outreach was held at the MIC-IT’s Penal Technology Centre.