Fourteen-year-old Shenika Joseph was all set to represent Region Six in the discus throw at this year’s national school sports, until she produced an adoption certificate.
Albert Joseph, of Hopetown, West Coast Berbice, told Stabroek News on Monday that his adopted daughter was heartbroken and “burst into tears” when she heard that her name was struck off the list. He said that the Mahaicony Secondary School student had excelled all through the school sports up to the “champion of champions,” stage, placing first in the region. And when she realized that she had made it to represent the region at the nationals, slated to be held in Linden, she was overjoyed. She was supposed to be a part of a team that would leave for the mining town on Sunday afternoon or Monday morning.
But Joseph said her excitement was taken away all because “the authorities are not au fait with a birth certificate looking like that.” He showed this newspaper the document which is pure white — unlike the ones that are issued for biological children — and marked at the top left-hand corner “Copy from the Register of Adopted Children.”
Stabroek News has learnt that the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) prohibited Shenika from participating although the document carried the “authentic seal.” The elder Joseph was also armed with a court order and said he was willing to produce that if he was asked to do so.
He lamented that he too did not know what an “adoption birth certificate looks like but there is always a first time. If the authorities didn’t know they have to find out… they could call the
Registrar General Office.”
He added that it is not like his daughter has to leave the country to display her talents for the authorities to be behaving like that.
But he warned, “Who knows maybe one day she can be selected to represent the country at the Olympics and they are stifling her talent. I don’t think it is right for them to deny her that privilege.”
This newspaper also learnt that another student of Region Six has also been denied an opportunity for the same reason. According to Joseph, “just as how it is affecting my daughter it is affecting other children and something needs to be done to change that.”
