By Cathy Richards
The Child Protection Agency (CPA) has issued a call for persons in Linden to open their doors to offer temporary foster homes for abused children in Region 10.
The appeal was made at a CPA stakeholders workshop held at the Watooka Club in Mackenzie.
Addressing the gathering of stakeholders from the regional arms, including the regional rights of the child and women’s affair committees, the Linden Hospital Complex administration, police officers, non-governmental organizations, and social workers, Deputy Director of CPA Diana Swan-Lawrence spoke of the prevalence of child abuse in Linden and the wider Guyana.
It was noted that of the existing forty-eight children who are in foster care, ten are from Linden while an additional four are likely to join the group soon.
The high incidence of children living under extreme abuse and other forms of violation of their human rights has resulted in the institutionalizing of foster parenting in Guyana. This got started in February with thirty-eight children. Of this number, one voluntarily returned to institutional care while most of the others were adopted, some by relatives and others by new families.
Elaborating on the purpose and procedures of the programme which is in its infancy, Every Child Guyana’s Samantha Austin noted that while they are eager to have persons open their doors to abused or displaced children, a strict screening and follow-up system is being implemented to ensure that the children are not exposed to further abuse in their new family settings.
Of a group of over twenty-five workshop participants, five persons committed to accommodating children for foster care while others questioned the stringent follow-up system that applies to the programme.
Some persons were specifically concerned about the frequency of visits that will be made by community case workers, among other matters. “I think that the rules and regulations of this programme need to be revisited because I don’t see why if I have a relative visiting my home I have a duty to report that to the case worker prior to that relative coming to my home. There must be some level of trust,” opined one participant.
Two case workers
According to Austin, currently there are only two case workers attached to the programme. “Presently one of the case workers has twenty cases while the other has more – there is a need for more case workers and we are lobbying to have case workers from Linden trained since at the moment one of the two that we have in Georgetown has to travel to Linden to visit those families we have here (in Linden),” she said.
Swan-Lawrence said much attention is being given to training parents to function as foster parents. “We have been having parental skills training for potential foster care parents because we recognize that it is a new thing, that you are bringing new children into your homes that you are not familiar with and who may have come from different backgrounds that you might not be familiar with… currently we are working with UNICEF who is our main donor agency to have parental skills training right here in this region as early as July.”
This explanation followed a question posed by participants in the workshop.
Persons also asked about the benefits to be derived from being a foster parent. It was disclosed that a programme in which a stipend will be offered is being formulated to assist foster parents but it was also emphasized that this should not be the attraction to persons opting to becoming foster parents.
In addition to the issues of foster parenting, Child Protection Specialist attached to UNICEF Doris Roos spoke at length on the topic of child abuse.
She expressed the view that children deserve to be exposed to the topic of sex in an age-appropriate manner. She also touched on the issues of removing the victim of abuse from the home as opposed to removing the abuser from the home and the environment.
This topic gave rise to a lively discussion among the facilitators and the participants. Persons expressed their dissatisfaction with the existing judicial system which sees accused child abusers returning to the streets.
Justice system
“I have a major concern with how the justice system operates. In most cases and we have a typical one . . . in this community where the abuser was remanded to prison by the magistrate and the lawyers moved to the high court and the next thing you know the abuser is back on the street and more often than not they intimidate the victims and their family and the matter goes no where,” said one participant who was unanimously supported by the other participants.
In response Roos said that according to the law an accused is not guilty until proven guilty in the court of law.
Supporting this concern, Swan-Lawrence alluded to the efforts being made through the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security to institute legislation for stronger protection of abused children.
“We have been having so many complaints about what happens in the judicial system. . . while I really can’t pronounce on that I know that with the passing of the Child Protection Bill into an Act now with the assenting of the president, it gives us more legal rights to intervene in matters of abuse.”
The ministry is also waiting on the assenting of the Sexual Offences Bill which will also give the CPA the right to intervene in matters of sexual abuse in a move to protect the victims.
“I know that those victims become victims many times over… They are victims first then they go to the justice system and they become even more victimized and so on and it is really sad but we are working,” Swan-Lawrence said.
Participants appealed to the organizers to lobby for local child care units in Linden to have allotted airtime on the local NCN television station to address issues of child rights and abuse.
The workshop was a joint effort of the CPA, Every Child Guyana, the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security and UNICEF.
The workshop sought to establish the need for cross-agency teamwork, share visions and inspiration for cross-agency teamwork, examine the implications of the new legislation for the work of social workers, cooperation with the police, and reporting abuse to the CPA by other professionals.
In fulfillment of these objectives, practical exercises were done among cross-agency groups to establish similarities and differences in their interests.
Meanwhile, a follow-up session is planned for the near future and it is hoped that NGOs, including the Linden Care Foundation which was absent, would make a special effort to attend since they play a key role in child care issues.
