Dear Editor,
After giving a talk at a school in the hinterland, a teacher shared with me that one of her students was being repeatedly raped by her grandfather, even though the grandmother and mother are aware of it.
The child who lives in the school dormitory during the school year asked not to be sent home for the August school break because that is where the rape occurred.
The teacher informed me that she informed the ministry but nothing has been done. I tried pressuring the teacher to do more to get the child help but, she did not want to. So to keep the child from going home and to prevent further abuse, I tried unsuccessfully to get an orphanage to keep her temporarily.
At the end of the school year, she returned home. She returned to the same room, bed, and into the arms of the same abuser. The teacher did her part by reporting it to the ministry. I did my part by trying to find her a home. The child did her part by reporting it to the teacher. The ministry didn’t do their part. Today, she is at home without protection.
Editor, for a while I forgot about her. I felt I had done everything I could do to help her. Recently, I’ve been thinking about her. I wonder if I could have done more. Several people told me I should have contacted the police because it is a crime. I didn’t do so because the police are no different from the ministry official who didn’t act immediately to prevent the girl from going back to the home. In my opinion, the police in the hinterland show little concern about these cases. They see it more as a private, or a family matter rather than a crime. This is why I didn’t go to the police. In the hinterland, incest is ubiquitous. Go into any school in the interior and you will find girls who have been raped. It is systemic.
However, several weeks later, I’m constantly being haunted and tormented by thoughts about the child. I wonder if the abuse is still going on. I wonder if she will be able to heal physically and mentally from her abuse. I wonder if she’ll be able to live a normal life or will her life be completely destroyed, psychologically and physically. I wonder what will be her future.
I know when l write this letter to the newspaper someone from the government will write back asking me to give them the child’s name so that they can help, because it is the politically correct thing to do. I don’t want them to write me any letter. They are already aware rape and incest is prevalent in the hinterland. Everybody knows it. I’m not telling them what they don’t already know, yet they do nothing to stop it. Unless this government enforces a new policy on rape and incest, rape will continue to be widespread in the hinterland.
Editor, I believe that incest in Guyana is a national tragedy. Rape and incest are immoral, and destroy children’s lives.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
