The 46 children, who were displaced because of Saturday’s fire at the Care Centre for Children in Hadfield Street, are said to be slowly recuperating from the traumatic experience.
Following the evening blaze, which gutted the male dormitory at the facility formerly called the Drop-in-Centre for Street Children, the children were relocated to a building in Sophia. Since then, the children have been undergoing counselling in an effort to help them return to a state of normalcy. The 25 boys and 21 girls include six children who were taken to the hospital for observation on Saturday night. However, they were sent away from the hospital that very evening.
Director of the Child Care and Protection Agency Ann Greene said the children are trying to get settled but have clearly been setback by the fact that they’ve lost their property. She said since the male dormitory was destroyed in the blaze, many of their possessions were burnt and this has affected them. “For children in their position, these things mean a lot,” she explained, while adding that the social workers were doing their best to assure them that what was lost can and will be replaced.
She said that some were also a bit put out by their new surroundings and were asking to go back “home.” However, Greene noted that since children adapt quickly, within a week they may get over this phase. Nevertheless, she opined that the sooner the children return to the original building, the better it would be for them.
Greene said that the intention is to have all the children return to school by tomorrow. While most of the girls went off to school yesterday, Greene said, the boys needed new uniforms and as such were not able to do so. She said efforts are being made to secure these as quickly as possible.
Human Services Minister Priya Manickchand echoed the sentiments of Greene and said that stringent efforts have been taken to ensure that the impact of Saturday’s occurrence was minimised. She said the aim was to have the children return to a normal routine as quickly as possible.
She said that no assessment has been done as yet to determine the damage done by the fire. According to her, the officials at her ministry were awaiting the go ahead from the Guyana Fire Service, whose members were still conducting investigations. The intention is to have the facility repaired as quickly as possible, Manickchand said.
When this newspaper visited the facility yesterday morning, the gates were locked and it was under police guard. Upon enquiring, this newspaper was told that the facility was still locked off to staffers.
Meanwhile, efforts yesterday to contact Fire Chief Marlon Gentle on the state of the investigation were unsuccessful.
