from the Trinidad ExpressCarolyn Kissoon South BureauGreat-grandmother, Cynthia Pascal, has been living with the deadly HIV virus for five years. And although her lifestyle has changed, Pascal has not allowed the virus to control her daily routine.She still cares for her seven children, 16 grand children and six great grand children. And she is still an active member of the community church.Pascal, 73, stood smiling before an audience at City Hall, Harris Promenade, San Fernando yesterday and spoke about living with the HIV virus."I did not know I had the virus. I was getting slimmer and slimmer and I thought it was my kidney. Doctors could not tell me what was happening until I collapsed one day and was taken to the San Fernando General Hospital. There I was diagnosed with the virus....
from the Trinidad & Tobago ExpressPhoolo Danny-Maharaj South BureauPRINCES Town has the second highest poverty rate of all the regional corporations in Trinidad and Tobago.This was stated by Gary Tagallie, programme manager of the European Union-sponsored Poverty Reduction Programme of the Ministry of Social Development, at the recent candlelight Vigil and Walk Against Poverty in Princes Town.According to Tagallie, Princes Town has 11.2 per cent of the nation's poor.He said: "As civil society, as private sector and as government, we must be concerned that, despite the buoyancy of the national economy, this level of poverty is still too high."Despite the many programmes available to the poor and vulnerable and the amount of resources spent on poverty reduction programmes both by...
from Caribbean Net NewsBy Stephen CummingsCaribbean Net News Trinidad and Tobago CorrespondentEmail: stephen@caribbeannetnews.comPORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad: The Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Social Development on Wednesday published its Survey of Living Conditions final Report on Trinidad and Tobago for 2005.The Survey, in collaboration with the Social Development Ministry, was done under the European Union-Sponsored Poverty Reduction Programme.Such surveys are usually conducted every two to three years. At the end of 2005, the level of poverty in Trinidad and Tobago was put at 16.7 percent, while the indigent was put at 1.2 percent. The poverty line was at TT$665 per month per capita. An IDB commissioned report for an earlier period 1998 placed the poverty level at 24 percent. This was...
from Trinidad NewsOPPOSITION LEADER Kamla Persad-Bissessar accused Government of trying to cover up growing poverty in the country. Speaking during debate in the House of Representatives last Friday, Persad-Bissessar claimed that Government has shifted its tactics of “statistical conmanship” from the country’s crime to its poverty figures.She said while Social Development Minister Anthony Roberts has boasted about the country’s poverty levels being reduced by half during the PNM’s term in office, Government was really doctoring the figures “to cover up a crisis” in the country.Persad-Bissessar claimed that based on the UNC’s calculations which stretched from a European Union survey on poverty in Trinidad and Tobago in 1999, the current data should say that any person who...