Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

With To­ba­go’s birthrate falling by more than 50 per cent, the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) is pro­vid­ing par­ents of new­borns with a $500 month­ly grant in an ef­fort to sup­port fam­i­lies and en­cour­age more births on the is­land.

Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine said the grant, which forms part of the THA’s Uni­ver­sal Child Ben­e­fit Pro­gramme, can on­ly be ac­cessed by To­bag­o­ni­ans and will be avail­able un­til the child is five years old.

He added that To­bag­o­ni­ans who give birth in Trinidad can al­so ac­cess the pro­gramme.

Ap­pli­ca­tions for the grant opened yes­ter­day, but Au­gus­tine said it will be retroac­tive and avail­able to all chil­dren born from Jan­u­ary 1, 2026.

The ini­tia­tive was a cam­paign promise by the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) ahead of the Jan­u­ary 12 THA elec­tions.

On a po­lit­i­cal plat­form last year, Au­gus­tine said To­ba­go’s birthrate had dropped by over 50 per cent, de­clin­ing from over 900 an­nu­al­ly to just over 400.

In 2025, the Di­vi­sion of Health and Well­ness im­ple­ment­ed a ba­by box ini­tia­tive for all new­borns, pro­vid­ing a num­ber of es­sen­tials for the moth­er and child. The box in­cludes booties, di­a­pers, breast pump and ma­ter­ni­ty pads.

Au­gus­tine said the THA is go­ing a step fur­ther with ad­di­tion­al sup­port as part of its Uni­ver­sal Child Ben­e­fit Pro­gramme.

He said, “It does not oc­cur any­where else in the coun­try. That you born at a hos­pi­tal and au­to­mat­i­cal­ly get all that you need to start life. On top of that, you get the ba­by grant...

“That ba­by grant ac­tu­al­ly be­gins on Sep­tem­ber 1. Just go on­line, get your To­ba­go ID, sign up for that ba­by grant, en­sure you have your cor­rect bank­ing in­fo and voila, $500 every month.”

While he ac­knowl­edged $500 was in­ad­e­quate to cov­er all a ba­by’s needs, Au­gus­tine said the funds would give par­ents an op­por­tu­ni­ty to put aside some mon­ey in­to sav­ings while help­ing pro­vide some es­sen­tials.

Sec­re­tary of Health and Well­ness Dr Faith Breb­nor told Guardian Me­dia she wel­comed the grant.

Asked how much fund­ing the THA has al­lo­cat­ed to the pro­gramme, Breb­nor said she did not have that fig­ure avail­able.

How­ev­er, she re­vealed To­ba­go cur­rent­ly av­er­ages be­tween 30-40 births month­ly. With a mean of 35 births per month, the pro­gramme would cost the THA $17,500 each month and $210,000 an­nu­al­ly.

Guardian Me­dia spoke to a moth­er of a tod­dler who was grate­ful for the sup­port, but ques­tioned how much the $500 could re­al­ly help, not­ing that it would just pro­vide Pam­pers for a month.

PRICE OF BA­SIC ITEMS

DI­A­PERS

Hug­gies box (116 di­a­pers) $224

Pam­pers box (92 di­a­pers) $228

MILK

En­famil (1.29 pounds) $213

En­famil (354g) $116

Sim­i­lac (352g) $109

WIPES

Pam­pers (pack of 72) $48

Pam­pers (pack of 216) $146

Hug­gies (pack of 64) $29.80

Hug­gies (pack of 174) $100.60