It should come as no surprise to anyone that last month’s fire at the Drop-In Centre in Hadfield Street, which took the lives of Joshua and Antonio George, was a tragedy waiting to happen.
There had been a number of reports about problems at that particular facility, which were always vociferously denied by its management and the powers that be. As recently as December last year, this newspaper had carried a report detailing issues raised by a volunteer who visited the facility regularly. This volunteer had noticed that the centre was plagued with German roaches, that the cleaning was subpar and that the staff seemed largely clueless as to how to deal with the vulnerable children in their care.
What followed the very next day was denial all around and the Drop-In Centre, which had previously been inaccessible to our reporter was open. It had been cleaned. It was also claimed that there were counsellors “on site” and that children were counselled three times a week. There was, of course, no mention of the fact that the children were being taken care of by unqualified, untrained and largely clueless staff.
It took a fire, loss of lives, untold grief to parents and trauma to the other children and a Commission of Inquiry to remove the wool-pulling and obfuscation liberally applied by those in charge. What is sad is that it all need not have happened.
There was a fire at the Drop-In Centre some six years ago. It caused substantial damage. At that time 46 children were housed there, but fortunately none were injured. However, they were all traumatized – more so the boys as the blaze had destroyed the boys’ dormitory and they had lost all of their possessions. Director of the Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA) Ann Greene had said back then: “For children in their position, these things mean a lot.” Then subject minister Ms Priya Manickchand had indicated that the ministry planned to have the facility repaired as quickly as possible. It was assumed that this was done. However, what emerged in the CoI report was that the boys were sleeping in a common room on the lower flat, since their dormitory was being renovated. Surely if it had been rebuilt after the 2010 fire it would not have needed renovation so soon. If it was rebuilt, then what was the standard of work done?
According to the CoI report, last month’s fire was “determined by the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) to be electrical” in origin. “The fire was caused by a defective electrical point fitted with exposed wires in the girl’s dormitory which played a role in the fire ignition and which caused the fire to travel through the electrical conduits in the ceiling,” the report said.
The 2010 fire was also electrical in origin and the Guyana Fire Service had made certain recommendations then and again last year, which were not fully implemented. How and why was this allowed to happen, not once, but twice? What kind of bumbling, careless dullards believe that it is okay to cram 30 to 40 children into a building that can only comfortably accommodate 21 and one that is not fire regulations’ compliant to boot? Can they really care about our nation’s children?
The report said that the untrained caregivers on duty on the night of the fire, House Services Supervisor Ms Mentore, Deputy Director of Policy and Development Ms Fraser and Manager of Care Centres Ms Gentle should be held accountable as none of them did what they should have done to ensure the well-being of the children. It vaguely attributed some responsibility to the CCPA and state officials and in its recommendations mentioned what the Ministry of Social Protection ought to be doing.
The truth is that low level employees like the caregivers can only follow instructions and cannot train themselves. Even the supervisor and manager operate at a certain level. The persons who should be held accountable are CCPA Director Ms Greene and her direct superior Minister of Social Protection Ms Volda Lawrence. They are the ones who have faced the public and deliberately trotted out inanities, knowing full well that the Drop-In Centre was a far cry from the safe facility they made it out to be. Ms Greene has been there from the inception and she would have known about all of the recommendations that were not implemented under the previous administration. She chose to ignore them.
In the case of Ms Lawrence, there has been more than enough time since she took over last year for changes to be made, and for even a strategy to be put in place to fix what needed to be addressed. Nothing was done at the Drop-In Centre and nothing has been done at any of the other facilities housing vulnerable children. Is there any confidence then that any of the recommendations made in the CoI report will be implemented? Who exactly does the buck stop with?
