It is time to bring back NGOs in the community

Editor: It has been a few months since the historic victory of the NDP in our nation, snatching away power from the Unity Labour Party in the final leg on their way to a quarter of a century reign.

During this time we have seen a lot of pointing fingers, exposures and blatant propaganda publicized, to sow even more division than what was left behind by the ULP. Emotions are high and many are happy or unhappy with all the changes that are taking place.

Now that the dust has settled a bit I would like to remind us all that regardless of who feels they are in charge of St Vincent and the Grenadines, the future of Vincentians for the next few years is the NDP.

But they can not do it alone. For the remainder of the term it is my hope that the NDP replaces or undo the centralizing of everything and return the power of the communities to the people of the constituency.

I am calling on the powers that be in government to bring back to the community Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) with clear rules and legal structure to take care of the maintenance, repairing, and events of their respective constituencies.

Allow South Windward to take care of South Windward, allow North Leeward to care for North Leeward by the people in the constituency coming together to fix the roads, clean drains, planting trees etc. to enhance landscaping, host community events and so on, thus pulling our Vincentian communities back together as one and not who is red and who is yellow, ignoring the fact that we are all in the same community living situations.

It makes no sense for a governing entity in Arnos Vale or Kingstown to oversee the care taking or events of a community in Georgetown and having to organize trucks, monies and work men/women from outside areas when there are perfectly capable people in the area who care more about it because they are from there.

Another good side effect of this course of action is that the government will have more time and funding to focus on more pressing matters that have to do with the overall betterment of SVG.

Let each constituency take care of its own!

Kamal Bacchus Browne