The Child Care and Protection Agency (CC&PA) and Ministry of Education Welfare Office are looking into complaints of truancy and neglect in the Vryheid’s Lust community.
During a visit to the community yesterday, Stabroek News noticed several school-age children milling about the neighbourhood during school hours. Children as young as six years old were seen running around the neighbourhood completing errands for their parents, such as purchasing cigarettes. Several boys, who could have been between 12 to 14 years old, were seen playing a game of dice around 11 am.
Persons in the area told this publication that there are numerous children in the community who regularly miss school. These children range in age from the previously mentioned primary school age to high school dropouts who roam the neighbourhood committing petty crimes.
Further compounding the situation, according to residents, are instances of neglect and abuse. One dwelling, which was pointed out, was said to be without running water and toilet facilities with its occupants disposing of bodily waste in a bucket which is dumped in the drain running alongside the street. It was observed that among the occupants of the home are six young children who appear to range in age from about four to eight years old. These children were climbing up and down a dilapidated stairway and playing in the yard with a pig.
Concerned members of the community claimed to have made several complaints to the Ministry of Education Welfare Office and CC&PA but have seen no change in the situation.
When contacted, the Welfare Office of the Ministry of Education said there was no record of any complaints having been made. Director of the CC&PA Ann Greene said that if the complaints had been made as residents claimed then action would’ve been taken in 48 hrs as is the policy of her organisation.
However, Jean March, a resident of the community, refuted Greene’s statement, telling Stabroek News that she had personally made a complaint to the CC&PA and was asked by the individual to whom she spoke if she could not speak to her neighbour whom she had noticed beating her child for about 17 minutes. March said she told the young lady who had answered the phone that the neighbours were not the type of persons to whom you could speak. Since the time of that phone call some two years ago March said no one from the CC&PA had visited the community.
Stabroek News was able to secure assurances from a welfare officer in the Region 4 Welfare Office that an investigation would be done within the week.
