The Child Care and Protection Agency is said to be investigating a case where a 23-year-old mother of 3, left her children unattended last Sunday while she consumed alcohol.
According to reports, around 11.20 am, the mother was consuming alcohol with a female relative and four males, while her home was in a mess and her three children, aged nine, five and four were left unattended. The children are also not attending school.
The 23-year-old woman who eloped at age 13 – which she blames on poverty – also has an older child, who had already been placed in the care of a relative.
The state of her younger children came to light when a vicious fight broke out between the female relative and her partner and the woman was forced to call the police. Social workers then found out about the situation and took steps to deal with it.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, an eight-year-old girl, who was being sexually abused by her stepfather, has been removed from the home she was staying in and placed in the state’s care.
According to reports, the mother of the girl walked out leaving her with her stepfather and his mother.
Some time after, it was discovered, the stepfather started to sexually abuse the child. He is now in hiding.
Meantime, relatives are trying to get justice for a 12-year-old girl from the Corentyne who was raped about one year ago.
The newspaper understands that the matter was reported to the police and the abuser was arrested, charged and subsequently released. But relatives said they were told that the case jacket had disappeared.
Reports are that the girl who was in the care of her paternal grandmother was beaten, forced to consume alcohol and to “sleep with a man against her will.”
The girl could not remember too much about the rape perhaps because of her intoxicated state. But the following morning when she awoke she was drenched in blood and was in a lot of pain.
She was scared and asked her grandmother what happened but the woman responded that she did not know. The girl then went to her maternal grandmother and told her what had happened.
She was afraid to return home and when she eventually did later in the day her paternal grandmother suspected that she had talked and attempted to pour kerosene on her while threatening to burn her.
The girl is still deeply traumatized and would appear to be lost in thought most of the time. She was also in seclusion until a relative decided to take her for counselling.
