OBA Youth Wing Hosts Dinner For Single Mothers
Future Bermuda Alliance, the youth wing of the One Bermuda Alliance, recently hosted a dinner for single mothers, the purpose of which they said was to “hear firsthand from people facing significant challenges every day.”
A spokesperson said, “We believe you cannot help people unless you first understand their situation, and that is the basis on which we organized the event. More than 100 single mothers and their children attended the March 8 dinner at Vasco Hall
“Single mothers are the unsung heroes of Bermuda. Raising a family alone is a major dawn-to-dusk challenge with constant pressure to organize children, counsel them, feed them, transport them and provide for them. Single mothers do this every day.
“The OBA believes it is the role of government to help people in need, and we believe single mothers need all the assistance they can get. They are the anchors of this society and their success helps determine Bermuda’s success.
“The big lesson for all of us in the OBA was to hear just how much the system was letting down single mothers and, more specifically, how programmes like financial assistance was not really serving their needs.
“Here is a list of some of the issues discussed at the dinner:
- Family courts. We heard that single mothers face a large amount of red tape, consuming huge amounts of time, energy and inconvenience.
- Financial Assistance. We heard that it is not working for many, with some unable to qualify despite dire need; and for those who do get it, it takes an enormous effort.
- Nonpayment of child support by fathers often places a huge, unfair burden on mothers.
- Wages. We heard that many single mothers barely make enough to cover their expenses. The OBA has already made a public commitment to eliminate the payroll tax deduction for people making less than $50,000 per year. This alone could put up to $2,000 more in your pockets each year.
- Government payments. We heard the Government can be late in paying child care bills. As with all other payments, the OBA has already made a public commitment to pay government bills on time.
- We heard concerns about school discipline and concerns about daycare and pre-school.
- We heard about health insurance deductions shrinking paycheques dramatically.
- We heard about high-rent costs taking an immediate bite out of paycheques.
- We heard about the lack of financial assistance for further education and personal development.
“The One Bermuda Alliance will place special emphasis on easing the pressures and improving the conditions for single mothers and their children.
“At the dinner earlier this month, single mothers had the opportunity to sign up for the forums that applied to their particular needs. We are thrilled with the number who signed up and look forward to working with them.
“To continue this work, we will hold a series of forums during the month of April to assist single mothers in budgeting, legal advice, proper nutrition and parenting. The next forum – on nutrition – will be held on Wednesday Tuesday, April 4th at the Berkley Institute in classroom A408 at 5:30 pm.
“Change will not happen overnight, the burden of debt that Bermuda has today will limit what can be done. The OBA, nevertheless, recognizes that people are facing serious challenges and that we have to do what we can to help. That is our approach and we will pursuit it to make a positive difference in people’s lives.
“The FBA has many other upcoming events, one of which is dedicated to single fathers in the community. We look forward to continue working with community to build a better Bermuda.”
Well done FBA. As an undecided voter who is under 35 you got a couple of points. It is my hope that the OBA takes note of you however, as a person who is a socialist at heart, I don’t hear policy initiatives that the OBA would do and how they will go about it. Being exposed to the political arena I see often how the leaders appease the youth wing. We need to hear from the potential candidates through editorials, video clips, debates. This is the interest of the new voter.
I’d suggest your policy of eliminating payroll tax for those who make less than $50,000 as poor thought out as it will ultimately but hardship on those who you are trying to help. Instead, provide free day care for moms at the college so they can increase their earning potential and make Family Services (and governmental spending) transparent and more efficient. I think this will be more feasible with the new electronic accounting system that government just bought. Payroll tax is one of two main ways that government makes their money.
Thanks for the kind words – we do read constructive comments, so thank you for yours and for the suggestions.
I love how they publicize every single thing they do. And this was weeks ago.
I guess they don’t have any real current news to push.
And they play it off a a success, meanwhile they promised transportation and didn’t deliver so people had to catch the bus.
Can’t even fulfil promise of transporting the people you want to vote for you…..
We did provide transportation for those that asked for it. There and back
Transporation was delivered. so please check your info
Like thousands of stranded tourists type of thing………..?
Ouch.
Is it the OBA has no stratige or the PLP has no plan to steal from…………….
LOL
Kinda like the PLP where anyone & everyone does not miss a chance for a photo op for something that they think is good but scurry back under their rocks whenever there is trouble that explodes in their faces.
What has the the PLP youth wing done lately? Anything in recent memory…distant memory…memory at all???? The sound of treefrogs.
When you say they “publicize (sic) everything they do”, would that be like having a full-blown press conference when you give $1,400 to a beauty queen(PLP), or having cameras and media in tow when you go Christmas Shopping (Cox)?
The reasons it took so long to make any public statements are twofold.
1. We didn’t do it for the publicity, we did it to have a real talk with single mothers where we had an uninterrupted period of time to hear their concerns and understand their daily struggles. This makes us better advocates for them.
2. We are a volunteer organisation and events, canvassing, and policy work were more pressing than a press release. We did the event to be better representatives of the people.
So then if u didn’t do it for publicity, why have u publicized it???
We did debate not publicising it.
But we thought it was important to publicly acknowledge the single mothers as well as make it public that we took something away from the meeting of the minds that will show up in public policy. We need to tell people that we are hearing and working to understand people’s daily problems so we can come up with programmes and policies that will really work.
again you have been proven that it is you that is uninformed………….
LOL
Hey what about us single fathers ?? We are struggling too u know. It should have been a meeting for single parents maybe.
“The FBA has many other upcoming events, one of which is dedicated to single “fathers” in the community.
Why not publicize it – it’s news dumb dumb – wouldn’t the flipflop party do the same thing? unfortunately the flipPLoP party only consider the less fortunate during election time.
Yup, PLP only cares about the less fortunate only at election time.
You criticise the PLP for spending money via housing, financial assistance and “giveaways” to the less fortunate during their time in office, but then say they don’t care. Sounds like you may have a flipflopping problem.
It amazes me how the OBA can manage to be on both sides of EVERY issue.
I guess you were too young when the PLP was the Opposition.
They were masters of speaking out of both sides of their mouths.
We want housing policy that is effective (not “affordable” housing that costs $4000 per month.
We want financial assistance that really helps (and would like to expand its role long-term).
Honestly, the big lesson from the single mothers night was just how broken the systems really are, and how badly the government is failing to meet these mother’s real needs.
WOW, Bernews is now publishing OBA propoganda. At least Bernews could have said that his was submitted by the OBA!
“Financial Assistance. We heard that it is not working for many, with some unable to qualify despite dire need; and for those who do get it, it takes an enormous effort.” —- Holdup, didn’t the OBA complain about government spending. Do they want to make it easier (spend more money) on financial assistance??
“Wages. We heard that many single mothers barely make enough to cover their expenses. The OBA has already made a public commitment to eliminate the payroll tax deduction for people making less than $50,000 per year. This alone could put up to $2,000 more in your pockets each year.” —– Hmm, what about the single mother making $50,500 per year? I think that single mothers who make under 50K prefer the $800 a month in daycare allowance as opposed to this plan that won’t work.
“We heard about the lack of financial assistance for further education and personal development.” — Does the OBA just make this stuff up? There is lots of support for further education AND the govt gives free personal development courses at labour and training and via fincial assistance (budgeting etc..). If you listen to these clowns govt sits on its hands and does nothing all day.
Nice propganda piece bernews.
Reliable sources advise the OBA youth group (FBA) will be having a single men’s forum in the very near future! I think these group of young people are so awesome!!!!! I think someone has just asked “what has the PLP youth group done lately????”
The PLP do have a youth group, its called the PLP. PLP doens’t have people playing in sandboxes while the big people run things. In the PLP the young people run things, Take a look at their executive then ask what’s up with the OBA telling people to play on the side while the big boys do their thing.
@ Rubbish…yes the PLP has a youth wing, and they have some young adults on the executive (i have a couple of friends that are there). However the needs of the people needs to be capitalized and communicated outside of the circle that hold the PLP cards. That is where the PLP is failing and has great opportunity to win votes. In this era of technology and fast paced old school tactics need to be modernized for the new voter. Publicity and Marketing are essential in raising profile and perception. Information should be given to the people, the people shouldn’t need to go find the information from the parties.
So the OBA can’t get their act together and announce candidates, so needing to make sure that they make news this week, they put out a press release on an event that happened 3 weeks ago.
Amateur Hour Indeed
I guess they can’t come to a decision on who will get the remaining safe seats – the old guard or the new guard?
Just let the people know – When was the last time that the PLP youth group put on an event?
The PLP Youth Wing hosted an Open Mic at Shine’s in December which was well attended and very productive.
What about fathers who’s rights are denied by the courts and treated only as good as an ATM!
“They are the anchors of this society and their success helps determine Bermuda’s success.”
A very sad state of affairs when we are declaring single mothers to be the “anchors” of society. I would argue that responsible, accountable, two-parent households are the TRUE “unsung heroes” of Bermuda.
Also sad that this issue is being used to score political points. This is a social issue that will only get better when we, as young Bermudians, work on building our intelligence, our self esteem, and self worth.
“The government can be late in paying child care bills.”
The only reason the government should be paying your child care bills in the first place is if an MP somehow forced you to have a child. If a person or couple has to rely on the government for child care, that person or couple is obviously not in a position to have a child!
The government should be promoting self-accountability, and refusing to subsidize unintelligent, selfish decisions. I realize though that there is probably no better way to lose an election in Bermuda!
co-sign 100%!
Man, I had something written up (not as well presented as yours) to submit, just like the above. You wrote the exact thoughts in my head.
Personal accoutability and family planning is where it needs to start, not putting it on the shoulders of the Government of the day, using my funds BTW.
I actually know a single mother who attended and asked a named candidate for a ride home and was told that she can take her only so far because the woman lives a bit further than the candidate. That’s very disappointing that the candidate couldn’t or wouldn’t go out of their way to accommodate her.
I actually know that the PLP youth wing didn’t give her a ride either.
People will think this is an election stunt so I hope that this kind of stuff happens more often to prove them wrong because many things start to happen when an election is near. Maybe we should have an election every year so we can get things done.
I hope this young group don’t take up the bad tricks of the Old Boys Assocition…