By Oluatoyin Alleyne
For the first time in Guyana, managers of orphanages would have regulations to comply with as the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security has set out some 25 standards in a booklet.
Launched yesterday, the booklet titled ‘Minimum Operational Standards & Regulations for Children’s Homes in Guyana’, was compiled following consultations with a number of stakeholders including persons who operate orphanages, with the support of UNICEF. Compliance with the standards and regulations by the homes is voluntary. However, Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Priya Manickchand, told Stabroek News that non-compliance would see her ministry taking the necessary steps even if it meant moving to the courts.
But she said it would not be a case of going around “with a big stick” to the homes. The ideal situation would be for managers of the homes to voluntarily comply with the rules and regulations, many of which she said were easy to implement. Further, she added that the ministry was in the process of assisting all of the homes in some of the areas, such as compiling individual case plans of the 600 children now in the orphanages.
Of that number, the minister told yesterday’s launching of the booklet at Le Meridien Pegasus, the ministry could not locate the parents or guardians of some 300, which meant it would be difficult to compile data on those children. “That paints a picture of where we are,” the minister said. She revealed too that it would be possible to reintegrate some 33 of the children currently in orphanages with their families.
The minister said it was the ministry’s intention to ensure that each child lived in a stable and happy environment and it was hoped that those who must remain in institutions were afforded that. She said her ministry was in the process of inviting applicants for the adoption of the orphans, as studies have shown that placing children in institutions was not the best thing for them.
One of the standards requires that each home appoints a management board with one or two volunteers from the community. The board would in turn look at the house rules and make sure everyone understands them, re-organise the management systems as necessary, instigate record keeping and assess and improve where necessary communication between the children and their families.
‘Not set up to criticise’
The ministry will receive regular updates on the homes’ progress in complying with the standards from a group of 12 independent volunteers who will visit the homes in groups of three to monitor the standards therein. The volunteers will feed information to the ministry and its inspector in an effort to raise awareness of the areas where a home may need assistance in reaching the required standards.
Project Officer of the British High Commission, Sarah Wheeler, who is a member of the volunteer group assured managers of the homes that the teams were not set up to “criticise and spy on the homes and how they are run.” She acknowledged that it would be very difficult for the homes to achieve the standards on their own in the short term but added that it did not mean that it could not be done. “But it does mean a great deal of effort is required and co-operation is necessary between the homes, the management boards, the visiting committees and all the
ministries to provide assistance where necessary.”
She said the assistance would be more needed in the area of the financing of structural work, extra staff, training for health and safety and educational needs of the child. “If however a home consistently fails to meet the necessary minimum standards of care then it will be the responsibility of the inspector and the ministry to take action,” she said.
She said the board and visiting committees would want to see that the children were “happy and well cared for, that their behaviour is supervised and they have respect for themselves and others.” This, she said, was possible even when there were other standards which have not yet been reached.
Wheeler noted that the running of homes on a day-to-day basis took a lot of organising, careful budgeting and infinite patience.
With regard to the cooperation, Wheeler suggested that the Ministry of Health could assist by advising on a standard First Aid box with basic medicine and equipment and train key staff to deal with minor illnesses, while the fire service could advise on safety procedures, fire safety regulations and provide fire extinguishers, fire blankets, fire detectors and check each building for escape routes.
Children’s talents should be nurtured and encouraged by the staff at the home and the child’s social worker, she added.
It was noted that the children in the homes would have already had very unhappy experiences and some might have been victims of emotional or physical abuse or rejection by their families. As a result they need extra special care and attention to pull them back “from the edge of anger, frustration, hopelessness and despair,” she said.
“That is why it is important for their social workers, the managers of the homes, the child carers who work there… and everyone else who deals with them on a day-to-day basis to understand the need for them to feel they are respected as individuals, that their welfare and education matters, that people care about them and that there is a future for them,” Wheeler said.
Never seen a welfare officer
Shivaugn Lachish, who spent the early part of her life in an orphanage and in foster care, related that “loneliness, fear and hopelessness were oftentimes my companions.”
Those days were during her time in foster care and according to Lachish during that period she never saw a welfare officer at the home and as such there was no one to turn to or no place to hide. “There are too many rights of the children that are being abused in these substitute homes for too long, for too long,” she said.
Lachish called for a system that allows the relevant authorities to make constant checks of homes to encourage training and support of care givers and to ensure that they maintain the standards to be incorporated in the plan.
Deputy Representative of UNICEF, Deguene Fall, in her remarks noted that the implementation of the standards was of extreme importance to ensure that the rights of the children were safeguarded and the Convention on the Rights of the Children (CRC) fully implemented. She said that at the micro level, socio-economic problems such as poverty, migration and HIV have affected the ability of families to care for their children. This, she said, has contributed to the number of children in residential care and the need for the implementation of the standards to guide and monitor the kind of care administered to children and also to promote the implementations of the provision of the CRC.
According to Ann Greene, Coordinator of the Child Protection Services at the Human Services Ministry, many of the children went beyond a temporary stay at the institutions and the standards within those facilities were “generally absent or not in compliance with the rights of the child”. She noted that all but three out of the 23 care facilities in Guyana were privately owned and managed mostly by religious bodies and without much adherence to any rules and regulations or set admission policies and very little social work interventions with the children. She quickly added that the ministry appreciated the work and the role the homes were playing in providing refuge for children, but there was a need “to take things to a higher level.
“Standardised operations – making sure that all are in one accord, making sure that there are legal binding regulations to govern operations and that there is adequate monitoring and follow-up of the children’s care,” she said.
