Dear Editor,
ChildLinK and our colleagues in civil society strongly condemn the gruesome murder of Isaiah and Joel Henry, of No. 3 Village, West Coast Berbice. We also condemn the escalation of the protest that has led to the killing of Haresh Singh. We offer our sincere condolences to the families and relatives of these young men. We call on the Police to conduct a thorough and swift investigation to bring the perpetrators of these heinous murders to accountability by the law. We hope that political leaders of both sides of the divide will work together to console this grieving nation and lead in efforts to improve race relations in Guyana.
We recognize that people are angry, concerned, and are hurting – and rightfully so. We should all be alarmed that a group of human beings can mete out such barbaric and sadistic cruelty on another human being – even children. We must agree that all our pain and anger must lead to actions that prevent a reoccurrence, as hurting others whilst calling for justice is not justifiable. There must be change at all levels – beginning with our national leaders, cascading to civil society, and community and faith leaders and most importantly at the level of families. Changes at the grassroots level will lead to men taking on their roles as protectors in their families and communities and ensuring law and order; the role of men is not to be murders.
Many in society equate discipline and correction with violence, convincing children that it is in their best interest that an adult inflicts pain on them to make their lives better. Guyana, we must recognize that for too long violence continues to be a norm and is perpetuated across our society. We see violence in homes, in schools, in our markets, and other public spaces, in our transportation systems, in our protesting, in our Parliament, and especially in our public political discourse. Our pain and anger do not justify protest that is inciting or inflicting violence and killing innocent people. Violence is too pervasive in our lives and if we are to prevent another tragedy from occurring, we need to rethink our views on violence.
Statistics show that it is boys who are more likely to be the victims of physical violence in homes and therefore are likely to become violent. For example, according to a Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA) 2018 report, of the 1,115 reported cases of physical abuse reported to the CPA, 633 or 56 percent, were boys. The cruelty meted out to boys is not limited to hitting. In the same report, of the 33 children that were abandoned, 23 were boys. Additionally, of the 2,431 cases of child neglect, more than half, or 1,297, were boys. ChildLinK’s 2016 thematic paper captioned, An Analysis of the Nature and Extent of Institutionalization of Children in Guyana, found that boys in institutional care were mainly the victims of physical violence (Bess-Bascom, 2016). Further, over the period 2013 to 2018 there has been a 124 percent increase in the number of reported cases of sexual violence against boys. This is not to say that girls are not victims of violence – we know this all too well. While we acknowledge factors prevalent in our local context such as racial prejudice, we must not fail to realize that senseless violence against boys is endemic in our society as part of the racial divide.
ChildLinK joins with all Guyanese in condemning the murder of Isaiah, Joel and Haresh, and the call for justice and peaceful, organized protests. We join the call for our political leaders to play their role in bridging the divide. We join the call with our colleagues in civil society in advocating for ending violence in all its forms. We appeal to all Guyanese for unity, and we call on all citizens, parents in particular, to recognize that violence is learnt through socialization at various levels and as long as we continue to accept violence as a norm in our engagements – our people, our boys, our girls, our women and our men –both young and old – will never be safe.
Yours faithfully,
Omattie Madray, Hasani Tinnie, Shaquita Thomas – ChildLinK Inc.
Dmitri Nicholson – Youth Challenge Guyana
Juanita Burrowes – United Bricklayers
Annette Jandoo – FACT
Dorothy Fraser – Guyana Red Cross Society
Leroy Adolphus – SOCDA
Akola Thompson – Women’s Wednesdays Guyana
Shivanie Rampersaud – Founder of Young Pioneers
Beverly Braithwaite-Chan, SWP, CFLE &Counselor
Nicole Cole
E. Smith – Guyana Women Miners Organization
