 The Public Assistance Program, commonly referred to as PAP, is one of government social protection programs that provides cash transfers to vulnerable households island-wide to assist them in meeting their basic needs. The program, which is administered by the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice and Empowerment, requires that beneficiaries are reassessed and recertified on a regular basis to determine continued eligibility. The ministry recently completed a PAP recertification exercise. There is an obligation by the government of San Lucia to actually undertake this activity because we need to find out whether people are alive, whether people's conditions have changed, and also the depth and severity of poverty in San Lucia. So when we recertify clients, it means that we're taking up-to-date information about the client to see whether they've progressed or whether there are any changes, and also it helps in terms of our policy direction and programming at the ministry level for our PAP beneficiaries. In 2023, the ministry implemented a geo-coordinate system to help identify the locations of persons receiving public assistance. GPS support will now make it easier for welfare officers conducting field activities to help identify the exact location of persons needing assistance. Every application that is reassessed and conducted, we need to find the location and the points where our clients reside, which means in terms of data entry and in terms of programming, we can now locate persons based on the various GPS. We will be able to electronically identify where you're located in San Lucia and where exactly your house is located in San Lucia. Approximately 3,500 households were surveyed during the recertification exercise, which was completed on May 31st, 2023. The data collected through this process will support appropriate programming by the ministry towards fostering overall improvement in the lives of poor and vulnerable persons in San Lucia. Marvin St. Louis reporting from the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice and Empowerment.