Barbados welcomes the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) new Representative to Barbados, Pieter Woltjo Bult.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Dr. The Most Honourable Jerome Walcott, welcomed Mr. Bult during a courtesy call at the Ministry’s headquarters, where he presented his credentials to the Minister.
Minister Walcott while noting that he looked forward to a productive and engaging relationship with Mr. Bult, assured the representative that UNICEF could rely on the cooperation and facilitation of the Ministry in advancing the Barbados-UNICEF relationship to the benefit of Barbadian children.
He also extended thanks to UNICEF for its assistance, over the years, especially in the area of technical assistance and personal protective equipment (PPE) donated to assist in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 in childhood institutions and day care centres in 2020.
Mr. Bult who was previously the UNICEF Assistant Programme Officer based in Barbados during the period 1994 to 1995, said he was happy to be back and looked forward to years of fruitful collaborations during his tenure, where he plans to focus on enhancing the care component of UNICEF’s services.
Minister Walcott and Mr. Bult also discussed a multi-country programme, childhood obesity, the use of technology to improve the quality of education as well as global education and learning losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also present at the meeting were: Permanent Secretary (ag), Kay Sealy; Senior Foreign Service Officer, Euclid Goodman; Foreign Service Officer, Shae Archer and UNICEF’s Communication Specialist, Patrick Knight.
