For the first quarter of this year, the Child Protection Agency received 1039 cases of child abuse, according to the Government Information Agency.
GINA reported that Minister of Human Services, Jennifer Webster gave the following breakdown. East Coast Demerara, Region Four recorded the highest number of abuse cases of 170. East Bank Demerara had 89 cases, North Georgetown 106, and South Georgetown 94 cases.
The statistics for the rest of the regions are as follows: Region One, 25 reported cases, Region Two, 46, Region Three, 213, Region Five 76, Region Six 105, Region Seven, 17, Region Eight and Nine 7 each and Region Ten, 91, GINA said.
Webster said that of the 1039 reported cases the agency had confirmed that abuse was perpetrated on 345 boys and 466 girls. In the case of the boys, GINA said that 69 were physically abused; 17 sexually; 195 were confirmed cases of neglect; 17 abandoned and 12 saw instances of abuse. Seventy-two girls were physically hurt; 120 experienced sexual abuse; 30 verbal abuse; 211neglected; 18 abandoned and 15 witnessed abuses.
Meanwhile, Webster said that to break the cycle of children’s ill-treatment, the ministry is seeking to foster greater community involvement.
The minister said that this is one of many initiatives the ministry had embarked upon in 2013, through the Childcare and Protection Agency.
Webster said that it was quite important for the ministry to work with NGOs as they are on the ground and many of them have knowledge of cases of abuse.
“Our intention also is to support them in terms of having an integrated approach to the whole issue of child protection and looking at multi-disciplinary involvement of the key stakeholders,” she said.
