Dear Editor,
Thank you for raising the questions that most people and the relevant agencies should be asking about the situation of Shevonne Green.
I searched the pages of the online newspapers every day looking to see if someone else had been as shocked as I was and for news that some help was being given to the child. I think the photograph made her look like a ten-year-old playing ‘dolly house’ with her baby.
I shudder to think of Shevonne being impregnated once again. And, what of the child? For how long would she be safe from the same or other predator? We all know the statistics about the most likely relationships between a rapist and his victim and it is not the stranger guy crouching in the bushes waiting to pounce or the one breaking into a house.
Please continue, no matter how unnewsworthy it might be after repetition, to raise the questions:
Who is the baby’s father? Who raped this child? DNA testing might be expensive but I am sure one of the many donor countries with a presence in Guyana would be willing to send material for testing in their home countries. Go to the embassy representatives and their spouses for help.
Where are Shevonne’s parents, aunts, grandparents, relatives of the parents, a kind neighbour? Who allowed this child to continue a pregnancy which has resulted in a Caesarean section procedure at 13? Who is feeding her nutritious meals and making sure she gets the required rest to ensure her healing? Who helps to mind the baby? Who are the doctors and nurses who have volunteered their time and expertise to check on her and made a commitment do so for the next year. I am sure someone went looking for the child and her baby to check them out medically.
What are the relevant social agencies and NGOs doing, now/today?
Who is going to help Shevonne deal with all the issues of health- mental and physical, her continuing education and the other multitudinous issues with which this child will have to deal?
The fact that it was or still may be acceptable for a 13 year-old child to have children is no longer a valid reason to shrug one’s shoulders. Saving one girl child is better than doing nothing.
This is where a community needs to gather together and raise Shevonne and her child as their own. Help Shevonne to realise that she is worthy, help her to deal with a rape and the publicity around the baby. Help her to realise later that her body is precious.
How about even the staff at a bank, or DDL, or Banks, adopting Shevonne and her baby as a long term community contribution project? Like a Marshall Plan? The cost may be a drop in the bucket for such an organization. But it will be an ocean of humanitarianism and of learning and giving and growing for the staff.
It may not be my business as a non-Guyanese but it is mine as a human being sharing this earth. I expected massive outrage, by women and men, but I heard not even a sotto voce “eh eh”.
Yours faithfully,
Patricia Khan
Barbados
