State of Guyana’s children

The statistics are not unexpected, given what occurs on a daily basis, but seeing them in black and white somehow still causes incredulity. Thirty-seven out of every 1,000 children die before they reach the age of one and 47 out of every 1,000 die before they get to be five years old. One in every five children lives in a single-parented household − usually with his/her mother – even if his/her father were alive. In this last category the prevalence is among Black, urban children. This is the state of Guyana’s children. Or rather this is what prevailed two years ago, according to statistics extrapolated from a survey of just over 5,000 households.

While the figures released from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) may seem a bit mind-boggling, they are actually an improvement of what the survey discovered when it was first done six years ago. Then child mortality was 17% and 25% higher respectively. Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy, cautiously lauded the survey’s results, stating that they were an indication of the investments in the social sector paying dividends, but also noting that there was much that could be improved. And indeed there is.

Respiratory and diarrhoeal diseases have long been major causes of illness and death in babies and children under five years old. During the rainy season every year there is a silent outbreak of colds and flu-like ailments, viral and bacterial gastroenteritis among children. It is silent in the sense that there is not a huge outcry about it; people expect children to get coughs and colds and it is almost internationally accepted that nearly all children will have at least one bout of rotavirus gastroenteritis before the age of five. However, the situation in Guyana is different as these illnesses keep recurring in children, even when parents are careful, and particularly in the rainy season.

Water-logged conditions contribute to these illnesses spreading, because in Guyana potable water pipes are not completely secure; there is some amount of seepage, which causes contaminated water to enter the system. The old system of pipelines, especially those laid out in the city decades ago, need changing. Some time ago, the Guyana Water Incorporated had embarked on an exercise to change them, but given the constraints it now faces that project may be in jeopardy. This is a social sector project that needs urgent investment. We don’t have to be rocket scientists or even doctors to see how this will impact on our children; in fact it affects all of us.

Meanwhile, there was no good news as regards malnutrition in children. The survey revealed that the percentages from six years were similar to two years ago. This is despite evidence that an increase in wealth seemed to be partly responsible for the drop in child mortality rates. The possibility exists that this rate might have fluctuated over the years, but since the survey is not done annually, there is no way of knowing for sure. This is another area that should attract social sector spending.

The 2006 MICS was conducted by the Bureau of Statistics in collaboration with UNICEF, mainly to monitor progress towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals. It will also be used to provide information that will help to monitor the situation of women and children in Guyana. If this monitoring is to be done properly, then the information which it needs cannot be gathered on an ad-hoc basis. Too much of what is being done in the social services sector is being done by guesswork. Guyana does not have a culture of statistically gathering data. This needs to change. Problems cannot be adequately addressed, if they are not correctly identified.