-protection agency considering options
Director of the Child Care and Protection Agency, Ann Greene, yesterday said her agency is reconsidering its decision to return four children to their Clonbrook, Mahaica home as their parents are not keeping their end of the bargain.
“We are not happy at all about what is happening… it [the situation] is not going nice and we are considering to move the children,” Greene told Stabroek News yesterday.
- The Pooranmals: From right, ten-year-old Anita Pooranmal and her siblings, nine-year-old Sanjay called Radesh; eight-year-old Ritesha and seven-year-old Avinash are seen with their father at the ministry on the day they were released into the custody of their uncle.
After the children were removed from the home, which was in an unsanitary condition, last May it was discovered that their father was addicted to drugs and the agency through the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security had worked with him in an attempt to get him off of drugs. He attended the counselling programme and all seemed well so the children were returned but Greene says he has since gone back to his old ways.
The children’s mother had also promised to keep the home clean and this was done initially but whenever the agency’s officers visited in recent times the home is never clean and the children live in very unsanitary conditions.
The only good thing out of the situation is the fact that the children are going to school every day, something that was not happening before.
Greene said her officers continue to visit the home and are working with the parents but should the parents continue in their present manner then the children would be removed from the home again.
Last May when the officials visited the home the 10-year-old was cooking while the eight-month-old baby was badly in need of a diaper change.
The four children, between the ages of eight months and 10 years were then removed from the home. The children were found after police officers from the Clonbrook Police Outpost had informed the ministry about a number of problems with schoolchildren in the area.
“When they entered, the ten-year-old was cooking roti on a kerosene stove set up right next to the bed… the baby’s diaper appeared not to have been changed since morning…. The entire place was in disarray and it was very dangerous and unhealthy for the children,” Greene had told Stabroek News at the time.
Mary Sandy
Meanwhile, a baby boy, whose mother had died tragically earlier this year, is now in foster care. Greene said that the agency prefers babies to be with a family as they need the extra attention and it is found that they grow much better.
The baby is the last of four children of Mary Sandy, who had died after she was struck down on the Providence Public Road minutes after she had dropped two of the children to school.
The three other children are now in the Mahaica children’s home and their father, who is unable to care for them, visits them periodically.
The children were removed from the home by the agency following Sandy’s death because of the conditions under which they lived and the fact that they did not have a stable figure around.
The 25-year-old Sandy mothered Andre, 4, Tyrone, 3, Anthony, 2, and two-month-old Andrew. She lived under deplorable conditions with her husband and children in a shack at Providence.
Reports are that the she had endured domestic abuse and was forced to raise the children on her own. The husband had described their circumstances as “difficult” in an interview with this newspaper.
The children’s stay at the home is indefinite as there is no competent family member to take care of them.
And Greene also reported on the Mahaicony Creek children, who were rescued from dire circumstances, last January and who she said are doing quite well and going to school while living with a great uncle in the same area.
However, she said that the children’s father, Gupta Pooranmal, had returned to his old ways of drinking and had attempted to remove the children from his uncle’s care but was prevented from doing so. She said the uncle receives social assistance for their upkeep and officials from the agency would visit regularly to ensure that the children are being properly cared for.
In January, the ministry had removed ten-year-old Anita Pooranmal and her siblings, nine-year-old Sanjay called Radesh; eight-year-old Ritesha and seven-year-old Avinash from the Mahaicony Creek home they shared with their father after this newspaper highlighted their plight and staff from the ministry visited and saw their living conditions.
This newspaper had reported in January that Anita Pooranmal had to tend to her siblings after their mother left them one year ago to escape from her alcoholic and abusive husband.
The mother, Ann Rosita Boodoo of Canal Number One Polder, had eloped with Gupta at the age of 12. She had told this newspaper that she had suffered hardship and abuse from the day she moved with him to the Mahaicony Creek.
The day she walked out “for good” was the third day that she and her children had been without food. She said she begged the children to go with her but only Sanjay agreed.
The father subsequently took the children to stay with her but later returned for them.