The public is being urged to help abused children by contacting ministry officials on 227-0979. All calls made after working hours will be forwarded to cellular phones which have been provided by GT&T which has been working closely with the ministry to make the hotline a reality.
This is the latest development in a plan to protect the rights of children across Guyana as several bills will soon be before parliament while several others have already been passed.
Speaking at a simple launching ceremony, Human Services Minister Priya Manickchand in thanking GT&T urged those gathered to pass on the hotline number for the benefit of all abused children.
She recalled that in July, the Ministry launched the CPA which is responsible for the protection of children following the passing of legislation.
“We are proud of the agency and …the work it has done thus far”, Minister Manickchand stated before pointing out that three more pieces of legislation in addition to the child protection act have been passed. All deal with the protection and rights of children.
In addition, she added there are two pieces of legislation which are before the select committee which is presently preparing draft reports that will be laid before the National Assembly to make these bills laws.
These are the custody guardianship act and maintenance bill and child care and development services bill. Both could be passed before year end.
She gave all assurances that the CPA as well as the Ministry is committed to ensuring that those pieces of legislation are implemented and enforced.
The Ministry will soon launch its foster care programme which is intended to cater for the 400 children who are in homes but are good candidates to be fostered.
Manickchand told the gathering that the plan is to move these children out of institutional care and place them into homes with families as studies have shown that these children grow better if they are placed outside of institutions. Institutional care should be a last resort and according to the minister it is based on such studies that efforts would be intensified to have such children fostered.
A study in Guyana she stated had shown that 65% of children in institutional care can be fostered. Presently forty children are in foster care with families and Manickchand called for more efficient actions on the part of the court in processing the foster care applications that are before them.
She noted that the Ministry though is encouraged by the commencement of the building of the family court which got underway last week.
Meanwhile the UNICEF representative in Guyana Suleiman Braimoh said that child abuse in any form is “totally despicable and unacceptable” and research has shown that the abusers tend to be people that are known to the children.
He said because of this many of these situations are not reported and the perpetrators go free.
Braimoh noted that child abuse detection is something his organization takes note of while urging those gathered to get involved in fighting the worldwide scourge.
In making the public aware of this issue and lending a hand in preventing it, the current batch of GT&T $200 phone cards will portray images in an attempt to dissuade perpetrators of violence; there will be a message in the 2010 telephone directory on the issue.
A banner with a message on child abuse will be added to the new GT&T website when it has been completed and DJs and radio personalities will be advertising the hotline number on programmes sponsored by the company.
