Dear Editor,
Please allow us to respond to the letter in yesterday’s SN titled `No help from the Ministry for this needy family’.
First, the Ministry has a social protection system – which responds to the needs of all eligible Guyanese applicants based on different needs – e.g. survivors of sexual and other types of violence (particularly children), those who are unemployed and those who may wish to return to school.
Please note that the extension of the social protection system (to a “shock responsive social protection system”), was created through a joint partnership with UNICEF Guyana to cater for the temporary needs of all families, including Venezuelans and Guyanese living in Venezuela) who have returned to Guyana. This system is based on set criteria- including the need for all migrants to register in Guyana, and enroll children into school (especially in the cases where persons may hold dual nationality) and migrants must be willing to document their skills (other details) in order to begin the process of finding employment and (if eligible) apply for the other social protection systems. Note that the Ministry will document relevant socio-economic data, the reason for migration, the use/purpose of funds, progress of families e.g. status of children in schools) and will conduct follow up monitoring visits.
This mechanism is part of the wider social protection programmes offered by the Ministry and will jointly be reviewed by both the Ministry and UNICEF. Further, it complements the existing services that the Ministry is partnering with UNICEF and other sectors for both migrants and Guyanese communities. This includes, the following (offered to both Guyanese and migrants):
Services for the reporting and counselling on child sexual abuse through Child Advocacy Centres in Region 1, 2, 4, 7, 10 (to name a few). With the Childcare and Protection Agency, we are currently expanding this service with NGO partners (Blossoms and Child Link).
Services for birth registration- this is for Guyanese and migrants to ensure that all children and their families are registered at no cost.
Legal aid and other support (including awareness raising on violence)- through Help & Shelter and Legal Aid Clinic.
As you can see – all services provided by the Ministry of Social Protection and other State entities complement the shock responsive social protection system- and we have even extended our social work capacity- with the support of UNICEF to help with monitoring.
We invite “S. Khan” to please visit the Ministry or send an email to dssmhss@gmail.com and submit the details so that we can review and take appropriate action on this case.
We are here to serve the entire population and all children,
Yours faithfully,
Whentworth Tanner
Director of Social Services
