Children at Bartica have responded favourably to counselling provided through the education ministry’s Psycho-social Support Intervention Project (PSIP) in the aftermath of the killings there.
Minister within the Ministry of Education Dr Desrey Fox and a team visited the Region Seven community to conduct a two-day interactive consultation with regional officers, police, teachers and parents to collect information on how children were affected by the murders there and at Lusignan. According to a Government Information Agency (GINA) press release Fox told the meeting that the project aims at getting all stakeholders to participate in addressing the effects of behavioural change exhibited by children.
Representatives from schools in central Bartica and in riverain areas such as Itaballi, Kartabo, Batavia, Karrau, Agatash, Makouria and others have indicated that children have been seriously affected by the murders and it has been reflected in their classroom behaviour. Children have experienced, “health problems, fear, confused perception of the police, aggressive behaviour and nightmares” which have affected their abilities to concentrate on their studies. The minister said the police need to make efforts to restore some measure of trust in the minds of children that they are able to protect and serve them.
In keeping with this she said the ministry intends to do everything possible to ensure that the PSIP is effective in dealing with the problems.
According to GINA, teachers and parents in the community indicated their readiness to work with the programme and suggested several persons who would be suitable for welfare training.
The team is set to return to Bartica this week to start the programme. The Bartica Hospital has been identified as a PSIP counselling centre GINA said.
As regard the East Coast, 11 social workers are working in the Lusignan area and plans are in train to set up a counselling centre at Buxton. Fox said the ministry will be working on offering psycho-social counselling region-wide to address social issues affecting children.
