Invisible, unwanted and unloved children

The realisation that at age 14, Andy (other name unknown) was so drunk or so high or both that he never heard the engine of the truck under which he slept start up has caused consternation. The substances he was abusing partly caused his death; he had used enough to be knocked out cold.

A post-mortem examination carried out on his remains found that there were both drugs and alcohol in his system. Where was an illiterate 14-year-old getting drugs and alcohol from? Who turned him on to these substances in the first place and who was his supplier? These persons should be found and charged.

Andy never attended school, it was revealed, because his aunt into whose care he had been thrust while still a toddler had no access to his birth certificate. But it’s more than that because children can be enrolled in school without birth certificates and have these documents produced later. In fact, the practice under previous education minister Shaik Baksh and before him, was that the children would be enrolled regardless and the head teachers and/or school welfare officers would assist the parent/guardian in procuring that birth certificate within six months. There has been no notice to the contrary from the current minister. So yes, Andy’s non-schooling had less to do with a bit of paper and more with persons not caring enough.

Andy lived with his aunt at her Foulis home for 11 years; from the time he was just over three years old until he ran away last August he never once attended school. He was provided with food, shelter and clothing but his right to an education was withheld from him. It’s almost as if he was less of a child and more of an appendage. To all intents and purposes Andy was invisible, because if he weren’t parents and teachers who live in the village would have noticed him and made enquiries, or would they?

We can deem Andy an anachronism and congratulate the government on having achieved universal primary education, but we would be kidding ourselves. Because there are other Andys and Annies too, who have remained unwanted and unloved, who have fallen through the fissures in the system and remain there because no one cares enough to offer the hand up that would change their lives, or even report their situations to the authorities. Traverse South Georgetown or any poor rural community and count the number of school-age children working or just hanging around. Twenty-four children were nabbed early last month during a campaign by the Department of Education in the Essequibo. Varying numbers of children are held when these campaigns are conducted around the country. In a few instances, parents have been charged when evidence reveals that they kept the children at home to care for their younger siblings, or sent them to gain employment to contribute financially to the household.

Furthermore, when Andy left his aunt’s home last August (he might have been 13 years old at the time), she made a report to the police and told them where he was. It would appear that was the end of the matter. It is not known whether the police ever made any moves to visit the home where Andy was supposed to have gone. And the aunt obviously never followed up the report. She was not his legal guardian; it doesn’t appear that any steps were ever made to formalise him taking up residence at his uncle’s home, but surely over the 11 years he spent there, some bond was fostered. Perhaps not. Because from the outside looking in, it would appear that by going to the police the aunt was simply clearing herself in the event something happened.

Obviously she was not aware of it, but something terrible had happened a long time ago. Her kindness in taking him in notwithstanding, Andy had fallen through the cracks. Uneducated and often left at home alone while his Aunt worked, Andy would have been the perfect prey for the nefarious.

Perhaps he did more than smoke and drink. Maybe the degenerates made him steal. We will probably never know. More likely than not, no one is investigating Andy’s death by examining his life and so he is as invisible in death as he was in life.

But maybe the rest of us can honour his short unhappy life by ensuring that none of his peers suffers a similar fate. And one way to do this is to speak up and speak out wherever and whenever we see a child in danger or suspect it; we should all be child protectors and return to the spirit of community which once existed.