As more athletes leave St. Vincent and the Grenadines for competitions and academic opportunities, this country’s Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves believes there could be a need to create a fund to help with the nutrition of these athletes.
“What I do is always talk to them about keeping the ministry informed, giving us good notice as to-I would like if we could get it on an annual basis so that we could set aside a particular fund, put aside a certain amount of money through the lotto. “Whether it is half a million dollars, three-quarters of a million dollars for coaches and athletes and their households,” Gonsalves said.
According to the prime minister, schools, coaches, and ministries will need to work together to make such a fund possible.
He also identified some possible barriers to cooperation in this endeavour.
“As you know, some leaders of team athletics are more interested in playing politics than cooperating with the government, even though we are doing a fantastic amount of work in sports”.
As part of this discussion, Prime Minister Gonsalves expressed his desire to see a greater level of cooperation in the country, as everyone had been through not just one, but two trying events: the COVID-19 pandemic and the explosive eruption of the La Soufriere Volcano.
The Prime Minister’s residence held a cocktail celebrating the nation’s athletes’ outstanding performances at the recently held CARIFTA games in Jamaica, at which athletes who brought home silver and bronze medals were awarded 1000 dollars, while the rest of the team received 500 dollars.
The possibility of a fund was mentioned by Gonsalves while speaking on the WEFM issue at Hand Programme.
