Virtual shack in the 1960s, the Rehab Centre, now the National Centre for People with Disabilities (NCPD), has been amazingly transformed into a major training facility for the disabled at New Street, San Fernando. From an initial intake of approximately 25 people, the NCPD now caters to 250 trainees in many areas of productive employment, a feat achieved through the assistance of the business community, foreign agencies, and from its own fund raising activities. The centre’s chief executive officer, Dr Beverly Beckles, feels that Government can do much more than the $800,000 it gives the NCPD annually.
Q: Dr Beckles, I am truly overwhelmed by what I have just seen here...truly, truly. How did you do it?
A: (A blush followed by a huge smile at the headquarters of the National Centre for Persons with Disabilities at New Street, San Fernando, Thursday morning) How did I do it? You know it is a very…it’s a question that has been posed to me many times and is one that I have stumbled on to give a response.
The reason for this question is that I am sure you remember way back in the ’60s this place, which I now called a complex, was a virtual shack when as a neophyte in journalism, I used to report on activities here. I come here this morning, and I was indeed pleasantly shocked by what I have seen. Words have failed me. How did it happen?
(A heavy sigh of satisfaction) Well, it is complex and is something I think I have to spend some time documenting in a way that would provide the steps which were taken so that it can be a template that could be shared with other similar organisations.
It started with what is the purpose of this place...and this interview cannot start to reveal the entire story but to make it short, with the advent of the International Year of the D i s a b l e d , NCPD, well it wasn’t so named, instead it was the Rehabilitation Centre, The Rotary Club of San Fernando decided they would undertake to reorganise the Rehab Centre which was established in 1964, which meant getting somebody to help with its reorganisation. Needing someone with the organisational skill, that is where I came in, which was in 1982 and without a background or any experience in disabilities, I spent three months outside of the country looking at and preparing myself, and I fully got into it in 1983.
One of your brochures has spelled out the services offered here under four headings, ie vocational and skills training, light manufacturing, community outreach, consultative services, and under each heading a very wide range of activities are being offered. At the beginning in 1964 the trainees received classes in a very small area. As you know, I stutter. Can I come for speech therapy?
(Laughs) Yeah, but all of us have some kind of disability, and I cannot interview www.guardian.co.ttSUNDAY, JANUARY 18, 2015 FACE-TO-FACE with Clevon Raphael do anything unless I put on my glasses (quickly putting them on), or else I wouldn’t be able to read what I have in front of me. In terms of those with physical disabilities that you have just seen, some of them in wheelchairs, walking aides and so on.
At the beginning, we had just about 25 people. The current population is 250. And these encompass all types of disabilities across the board, except for mental illness which is one that we don’t particularly handle as we do not have the capability or expertise to deal with, but it is an emerging area which we need to give consideration to.
Dr Beckles, do you get any assistance from the Government, as I am sure this must be costing you all a fortune each day to run?
Yes. Yes. Let me give you an idea as to how this organisation is funded. First of all, we are an NGO and so it is a charitable organisation. We receive an annual subvention from the Government which has been so since NCPD was formed.We are on leased land, we own all the buildings on this campus, as I prefer to call it (smiles), the equipment and everything else.
What we have been able to do is develop a partnership with the corporate sector and they have been able to fund some of the projects to help us in our operations.
And the question of expansion of the facility, purchasing of equipment, those are the things we have been able to achieve in partnership with the business community and international agencies, out of which we deliver a quality service. We have two major fundraising events, including a Carnival fete, and we offer a social entrepreneurship to the public which simply means selling some of the products we produce by the trainees.
Exactly what kind of funding you receive from the State? The last increase from the Ministry of (the People and) Social Development was 11 years ago, which puts the figure at $800,000 annually.
Wait, it is hard to believe that. I am looking at the expanse of this facility where you have a food crop farm, a talipia breeding pond, so much equipment, including an information technology programme, a furniture manufacturing section, a sewing project. Name it, you have it down here. Is that all the State can give you all? Yes. But we also get some additional funding for some academic trainees which is not a fixed sum, but that is also a big challenge. For instance, we have not received money for the last term.
Have you been making requests for an increase in your subvention? Over and over. Not only that, we are the only ones out of the NGOS who receive this education grant as we offer vocational training, and we should not be receiving the same amount of financial assistance. At the same time, that is a conversation going on there.
Has anyone from the Ministry been down here to see your campus facility? Yeah. You do invite (speaking in a hushed tone)...
Weren’t they impressed with what they saw? (Tone raises animatingly) But they ain’t reach yet! We have a professional staff here and if you want to retain them and give them further professional training, you have to give them a decent remunerative package. And that is my greatest wish at this time.
Do you have a level of indiscipline which can be described as a problem here at the NCPD? It exists, but one of the things… and it has to do with the kind of approaches made to the young individuals…we all have our challenges, we do not know what is happening in their home environment, but there is a level of confidentiality with each trainee.
Do they reside on this compound? No. No. We have a turnout every year, people graduate and they move out to the employment market because that is the objective of the centre. We want to get them out there and in order for that to happen, we also need to have a society that is acceptable, a society that is understanding and realise that we are in a diverse environment.
Has it been your experience that the society is that tolerant of the disabled community? We have been fortunate in terms of having some successful placement at different levels in the public sector, in the oil and energy sector, in the manufacturing sector, in the small business sector. (Furrowed brow) What we want, however, is a society where the disabled person is accepted, they are not denied access into the workplace.
Are the people generally discriminating against the disabled? It exists because I get people coming here all the time who did not necessarily come through us and who we did not place. When we place somebody there is a process we go through with the employer and the employee, so the prospective employer would know how to treat such a person. People who have not come through our facilities who may have their qualifications they just couldn’t get that opened.
It has happened and it is happening, so what we are doing at this time is a lot of advocacy work, public awareness drives, trying to sensitise the general public that here is a sector of our society, 15 per cent of the population, that have skills and can function and they should not be denied, their disability is not contagious, but to accept them and to understand that we all have challenges.