She has been accused of prostituting her daughter and is now facing a trafficking in persons (TIP) charge but a 38-year-old mother of six vehemently denies the claim saying that she is a victim of circumstances but admits that she can no longer “control” her teenage daughter.
“I would never do that to me daughter,” the woman told the Sunday Stabroek in a recent interview. “I try to steer she away because I know what it gives. She is me only daughter I wouldn’t do that to she I don’t know why she saying dem things but I still want the best fuh she.”
At least three other persons with whom this newspaper spoke and who said they had seen the struggles the mother endured over the years disputed that she was prostituting her child.
“That woman was crying out for help for years but nobody heard her cries and if they are going to charge her with trafficking in person then they need to charge the men who had sex with the child. They need to charge the hotel owners who allow the child in their building…” a woman, who has known the family for years, said.
Recently the Sunday Stabroek had reported that the mother, a Mahdia resident, prostituted her daughter, standing outside the kayamoo—a crudely-built hut used for prostitution in the interior—as the child was raped inside and then accepting payment from the perpetrator. It was also reported that should the man fail to pay a report of rape would be made to the police, following which money would be demanded to drop the matter. This information was provided by President of the Guyana Women Miners Organisation (GWMO) Simona Broomes who had indicated that the disturbing details were reported to her when she paid a visit to the mining community.
The child was removed from the area in January by the Child Care & Protection Agency (CC&PA) and a source had confirmed that the agency had received similar reports and that the police were involved. The child has since told the police that she would give the money paid to her by various men to her mother and it is believed that based on this information the police will charge the mother with TIP. Officials at the agency said that they are now focusing on helping the child, who escaped from the institution where she had been placed but was caught in a bus destined for Mahdia.
Questioned as to why the child would tell officials that she gave her the money she received from men, the woman said, “Me daughter does lie and she tell me cousin that if she going down mommy gaffa go down to.”
While the mother denies prostituting the child she does not deny that the child, who only celebrated her 14th birthday last week Monday, had not attended school for a while. The facts—as agreed on by all of the parties involved—are that the child is ‘highly’ sexually active; she was molested at the tender age of three; the child has not attended school in months; the mother is an unfit parent.
For her part, the mother cries that she is a security guard and hardly makes enough to support her six children even with the help from the father of her two youngest. She says she has tried “everything” to help her daughter; she wants the best for her only daughter.
Locked-up
According to the mother, her daughter went “haywire and she meet up with a girl who was bad company.” The woman spoke about the many nights she would walk the lonely streets of Mahdia looking for her daughter, who would sometimes disappear for days.
“She get big womanish and I can’t talk to she but I would go and ask fuh help,” she said. “I tek she to the police and Sargie [the Sergeant in charge of the station] use to had she reporting to de station. I carry she to the hospital and the doctor use to counsel she. I even carry she to the education officer. Is everywhere I turn.”
She was hoping that the child would have returned to school after the Christmas holiday as the education officer had promised to provide her with school uniform since she complained that the uniform was too short and her mother could not afford to purchase another.
However, she was removed from the community in January and according to the mother she was happy because she felt her daughter would have received the help she needed.
“I tell you the truth I couldn’t handle she no more and I say if dem could turn she around and she could turn out to be somebody good who could hold dem head up high, I would happy because wha she was doing was not good.”
As a security guard, the woman said, many nights she would not be at home. Initially, she took her five youngest children, including her daughter, to sleep with her in the guard hut but “the girl would still get away.” The father of her two youngest is seldom home since he works in the backdam and sometimes she struggles for money as the guard service pays her every other month.
The woman said when her daughter escaped from the facility and contacted her, she called a woman, who has close ties with the agency and informed her of the act.
Sunday Stabroek made contact with the woman who confirmed what the mother related adding that she provided officials with the name of the driver of the bus the girl and another child were in.
Last week, the mother travelled to Georgetown with her five children “after asking for donation” and her first stop was at the agency. There, the woman said, she was confronted by officials and while she denied the claim she was arrested by the police and was locked up for two and a half days at the East La Pennitence Police Station. She was eventually released on her own recognizance and informed that she would be charged and placed before the court early next month.
After she was arrested, her five children were temporarily kept in the agency’s care and on Tuesday they were released into the care of relatives. The children are now separated as two were taken by one relative, another two were taken by another relative and yet another relative took custody of youngest who is five years old.
“Now me ain’t get no children. Right now I just feel like ending me life. I don’t know what to do no more,” the sobbing woman told this newspaper.
Molested
While the mother cries over her ‘circumstances’ it is the little girl who may have never been given a chance to have a normal life. At three- years old, she was left with her then stepfather while her mother was admitted into the hospital to give birth to her third child. The man sexually molested the little girl. To her credit, the mother reported the matter to the police and the man was charged, convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison.
“I coulda run mad from that thing. You see is me only girl child I wouldn’t mek joke with them thing,” the woman said.
However, from all indications, the child was never counselled and for years was troubled. But according to the mother, things took a turn for the worse when she was raped last November. The child had disappeared for two days and the woman said when she finally returned home it was learnt that she had been with a 24-year-old man who had raped her.
The matter was reported and the man was arrested and the mother admits that his mother approached her and begged her to drop the matter.
“I tell she is de police she have to go to. But when I went, Sargie say de matter can’t drop and he have to investigate. But I stop going to de station because I didn’t want any court matter or anything. Because I was trying to save me daughter from going up de court steps where everybody coulda see she,” the woman claimed.
She denied accepting money from the family stating that she just did not want her child to be further shamed. She later learnt that it was being remoured that she had accepted $200,000 from the man’s family and that the police were given $400,000.
“But I don’t know if the police get money. I tell you de truth officer [referring to this reporter] I ain’t tek no money, I would never do that.”
According to the woman, after this incident her daughter would leave her home for days and “people would tell me how she deh following boys how she deh with man and I does be looking fuh she.” She claimed that it was because of this that she cried out for help and was relieved when the child was removed by officials.
‘Holistic investigation’
One of the persons this newspaper spoke to, who said she has worked with the family in an official capacity the last time being January last year, said before the police charge the mother they should conduct a holistic investigation to nab all the players involved.
The woman, who has been in contact with the mother even though she is no longer on official duty, said she would not put all the blame at the feet of the mother.
She accepts that because the little girl was molested this may have played a major role in the direction she took because she did not get the help she needed.
While she cannot “put my head on a block” the woman said she would find it hard to believe that the mother was “pimping that child.
“I have spoken to many people since I left that village and I don’t believe that she was prostituting her daughter, I don’t believe it at all. She tried to get help for her daughter.”
She is neither shocked nor surprised that the child may have been having sex for money since according to her Mahdia is a lawless community and the child is not the only underage girl involved in prostitution.
She described the community as one with limited moral values and one where young girls are socialized to become prostitutes since often, the men who pay for sex are interested in children.
“That mother was in no position to properly supervise her daughter since she was a security guard…,” she said, adding that both the mother and child are suicidal and need help. Placing the mother behind bars would not help the situation, she added.
More serious for the concerned woman is the fact that while there are so many social issues in Mahdia there is still no resident schools’ welfare officer, probation officer or child protection officer.
“These are the persons who are equipped to deal with such issues yet we have none of these in that community. Tell me in the absence of such persons who was there to help that mother and daughter when they needed help?” she asked, rhetorically.
The woman said it is the government and its various agencies that failed the mother and her family and they continue to fail many families because there is no system in place to effectively help those who need it.
“Who is there to help women experiencing a level of poverty and powerlessness? Who is hearing their cries? Yes we can blame the mother and say she should have done more but none of us walked in her shoes who are we to judge?”
One of the persons this newspaper spoke to, who said she has worked with the family in an official capacity the last time being January last year, said before the police charge the mother they should conduct a holistic investigation to nab all the players involved.
The woman, who has been in contact with the mother even though she is no longer on official duty, said she would not put all the blame at the feet of the mother.
She accepts that because the little girl was molested this may have played a major role in the direction she took because she did not get the help she needed.
While she cannot “put my head on a block” the woman said she would find it hard to believe that the mother was “pimping that child.
“I have spoken to many people since I left that village and I don’t believe that she was prostituting her daughter, I don’t believe it at all. She tried to get help for her daughter.”
She is neither shocked nor surprised that the child may have been having sex for money since according to her Mahdia is a lawless community and the child is not the only underage girl involved in prostitution.
She described the community as one with limited moral values and one where young girls are socialized to become prostitutes since often, the men who pay for sex are interested in children.
“That mother was in no position to properly supervise her daughter since she was a security guard…,” she said, adding that both the mother and child are suicidal and need help. Placing the mother behind bars would not help the situation, she added.
More serious for the concerned woman is the fact that while there are so many social issues in Mahdia there is still no resident schools’ welfare officer, probation officer or child protection officer.
“These are the persons who are equipped to deal with such issues yet we have none of these in that community. Tell me in the absence of such persons who was there to help that mother and daughter when they needed help?” she asked, rhetorically.
The woman said it is the government and its various agencies that failed the mother and her family and they continue to fail many families because there is no system in place to effectively help those who need it.
“Who is there to help women experiencing a level of poverty and powerlessness? Who is hearing their cries? Yes we can blame the mother and say she should have done more but none of us walked in her shoes who are we to judge?”
