Counselling starts for abused Bartica children, families

From left: Pastor Wendell Jeffrey, Dr Faith Harding, Dr Oba Osogbo and members of the GWMO following the counselling session with the abused children at Bartica yesterday.

Five children who reported abuse by a man at Bartica have begun to receive counselling through an intervention by the Guyana Women Miners Organisa-tion (GWMO), which took psychologist Dr Faith Harding and a team to the community on Saturday.

Dr Harding told Stabroek News that she got involved following a call from the President of the GWMO Simona Broomes about an alleged rape and child sexual abuse last week. She said after that call she decided she would meet the children and their mothers, to find out what really occurred and the kind of assistance she could offer. Dr Oba Osogbo, a clinical Psycho-logist and President of the Guyana Psychological Association and Pastor Wendell Jeffrey of Practi-cal Christianity Ministries, accompanied Dr Harding helped counsel the parents.

The counsellors first met the parents, in effort to understand what happened; simultaneously the children were given art therapy. Later in the day parents and children had a