Guyana is in a serious crisis when it comes to sex abuse among children and there is also the frightening situation of oral sex and sexual touching being pervasive among nursery-level children, while the majority of the girls in their late teens found in state homes are there because of sexual abuse, a roundtable discussion convened by ChildLink Inc heard recently.
So pervasive is the practice among nursery-aged children that Kean Chase, Project Officer of ChildLink, informed that the organisation received a call from an educational official responsible for the nursery level in a region seeking intervention.
It may have been this revelation that prompted a single mother to inform, in tears, that she is still attempting to come to grips with her 10-year-old son being in a seemingly compromising position in a chair with a neighbour of a similar age who had his penis exposed.
“I walked in… and my son got up and ran into the room and the boy told me he usually suck his finger and play with his penis. I am so embarrassed and frightened right now,” the woman confessed. Her revelation led others to speak about their experiences in what could have described as a therapeutic atmosphere at the Cara Lodge.
The turnout was poor but the persons present openly shared their views on why they believed sexual abuse of our children continues unabated and why children are becoming sexually active at a young age. These views include teachers refusing to teach sexual and reproductive health in school; some who will not even say the words penis or vagina in front of their classrooms, and abused children acting out the abusive acts on their peers. The abuse also results in children displaying promiscuity at an early age.
The Cara Lodge forum formed part of the completion of the two-year Empowering Children in Difficult Circumstances (ECDC) Project, according to Chase, who said it dealt with two aspects: the preventative, which was the Tell Scheme, and the advocacy centres.
The Tell Scheme was implemented in primary schools at the grade three and grade six levels, whereby teachers were given posters to educate children on where they should and shouldn’t be touched. The programme saw the primary level as the ideal the place for disclosure and so children were informed about abuse and comforted by the truth that they are the victims and not the perpetrators. Under the programme, ‘Tell Boxes’ were to be set up in classrooms to encourage children to write their stories or draw them, with the boxes being checked on a regular basis and assistance rendered.
The child advocacy centres—there are three in number—are managed by ChildLink and deal with children who are sexually abused.
“We wanted to have a conversation with the public and people who we were in contact with over the past years and we placed advertisements in all three of the newspapers to have wide participation,” Chase told this newspaper.
She said ChildLink realized that in as much as they had the centres and the Tell Scheme coupled with the efforts of other organisations “sexual abuse just kept going up, up, up so where are we going wrong? What are we not doing enough of? What is the stumbling block?”
The poor turnout at the forum, Chase felt, is one of the things that reflects how seriously “we look at social ills in Guyana… it just goes to show you invite the public, there were a lot of stakeholders who were invited.” She was particularly disappointed that no officials from the Ministry of Education attended the forum, as according to indications from the work ChildLink has been doing, the education system is really where children can be reached. While it is a great improvement that the tell scheme has been included in the curriculum more needs to be done and there is need for continuous support. “Teachers need continuous guidance…,” she said, positing that the ministry should make an effort to have counsellors available to assist abused children.
Chase said ChildLink will be compiling a report based on the project and is also in the process of compiling another report on children who are living in the homes in Guyana.
Four questions
The recent forum sought answers to four questions: As a society what are we not doing enough of or are we doing wrong? What happens to children who have been sexually abused? What preventative measures are in place for children at all levels against abuse? What should be in place?
Human rights activist Vidyaratha Kissoon believes that in recent years the issue has just been “crazy.”
“…I have been trying to put my finger on when things changed… I felt there was a time in Guyana when we thought we were going ahead.
“… [We] are not holding our leaders accountable… As advocates we really need to hold our leaders accountable,” Kissoon said as he revealed that he just left the picket lines of those who are calling for Minister of Social Protection Volda Lawrence to step down because of the manner in which she dealt with APNU+AFC candidate Winston Harding during local government elections, despite his reported charges for child molestation offences. She had suggested that it was a ‘family matter.’
Another participant later indicated that leaders should be cut some slack since they do not know everything. “We just feel that our leadership know and should know better but they don’t always… So it is our responsibility, those of us who engaged, to help to carry them along, sometimes they are going to be heavy weight for us to fetch but we can’t give up,” the participant said.
In answer to the second question, Chase said a recent study conducted by ChildLink found that the majority of the girls between the ages of 15 and 17 in state homes are there because they were sexually abused.
“So I am raped and I go into a home,” she said, adding that the situation is appalling. The reason for this is the fact that “parents stick to their spouses who have allegedly commit the act so who has to leave the home? The child.”
She questioned whether it is a breakdown in morals in society and families.
It was pointed out that the objective is to find a neutral place for the child as in some homes mothers have to make a choice based on bread and butter issues and the child who is seen as the least is sacrificed, “to preserve what you see as the bigger picture and to hide shame…” and is removed from the home.
“Half way homes may not be ideal if they are not properly set up in a way that is conducive to a child,” another participant pointed out. “But at the same time having the child in that home with family members… and most times with these cases the perpetrators are family members,” one participant pointed out adding that the scenario often means that the child is influenced and refuses to testify when the matter reaches the court.
“Their parents may tell them forget about the matter, move on and so by the time it gets to a High Court trial the matter is ended,” she said.
Kissoon pointed out that the Sexual Offences Act caters for the establishment of a Presidential Task Force for the Prevention of Sexual Offences. He said that it has never been done properly as the act prescribed that it has to have Cabinet participation and this has not been done. He said the idea behind the task force is to engineer a re-learning as it is supposed to be a place where all the agencies and organizations involved will take the data and experiences and come up with answers and solutions.
