When ‘home is where the hurt is’

Rescued neglect victim starts to trust again

A four-year-old boy who was rescued over a year ago by the Child Care and Protection Agency (CC&PA) from a situation of neglect, is finally beginning to trust people again, Director Ann Greene said, while relating that the issue of child protection is an ongoing one and every day a different story is told.

John (not his real name) is currently in the care of the CC&PA. It was on a on a quiet night, responding to a report, that the CC&PA went into a house where John, then three years old, had been left in the ‘care’ of his grandfather. Neglected by his mother, who herself was a victim of an abusive and racial family, he was never cared for since his grandfather was an alcoholic. He was given food by neighbours on a regular basis, but not much else.

On the night of his rescue, CC&PA officers found him in a rat-infested home, sitting in a corner with a knife in his hands. The house had no electricity and he slept half naked most nights on a mattress with no cover.

Director of the Child Care and Protection Agency Ann Greene
Director of the Child Care and Protection Agency Ann Greene

At the time, John had was unable to speak and had no social skills. Today, he has been successfully enrolled in a nursery school, where, despite being a slow learner, he is beginning to trust people.

Currently, the agency is looking for a foster family for John.

In an interview with Stabroek News, Greene said, “If home is where the hurt is, we are here to protect children from that pain… Child protection is all about the safety and protection of children.”

Greene revealed that for the first half of this year there has been a decrease in the total number of reported child abuse cases in comparison to the same period last year. She said that for the period of January to June this year, statistics from the CC&PA revealed a total of 1,388 cases of child abuse; there were 1,525 cases for the same period last year. Of the 1,388 cases up to June this year, 575 children were abused by their mothers, while neglect was the form of abuse perpetrated against the majority of children, 696 of them between the ages of 0-18.

Some 226 children were physically abused, 334 sexually abused, 80 abused verbally, 28 abandoned and 24 were witnesses of abuse.

For the same period last year, 638 of the 1,525 children were neglected, 275 were physically abused, 367 sexually abused, 185 verbally abused, another 26 abandoned and the remaining 35 were witnesses of abuse.

 

Countering neglect

Meanwhile, Greene explained that according to studies if neglect occurs between the ages of 0-3 it is very damaging to an individual. She emphasized that the agency is working to get children in that age group who are in its care because of neglect into foster care where they will be loved since they ought not to be in an institution at such tender age.

According to CC&PA head, child protection exists mainly because there are parents with mental stress who cannot deal with life and maintaining their child/children at the same time. Added to this, she said, are issues of domestic abuse and poverty, both areas that create vulnerability for children.

With these aspects that attribute to child abuse she said the agency has plans and will be advocating with the new government for a drug rehab center mainly because of the facts that alcohol has been a social acceptable factor that has been creating more problems than anything other thing between families.

However, in order to tackle this ongoing issue, it is the aim of the CC&PA to strengthen families to protect their children and having the community to act as watch dogs. At the same time she emphasized that the issue of poverty needs to be addressed. “We have to get people sensitize about abuse and this includes every parent, every adult”, Greene said while noting that it is the responsibility for every parent to protect their child.

Greene further explained that a child can never overcome abuse although the CC&PA help them to deal with the issue but the scars are left with them. “Child abuse affect every aspect of a child’s life and is leaves a secret pain in their hearts”, said Greene.

Many she said is neglected because of the fact that they are left alone while their parents are out for long hours trying to earn an income. In other situations, she noted siblings are even left to take care of their younger ones which leave the doors open for people to abuse them since they are left unattended.

While child abuse is an international problem according to Greene she is looking forward to learn from other countries so that they can unite and work together to solve the problem

 

The alternative care procedure at CC&PA

Greene said that to place a child in an institution after a report is made is the last resort for the agency, but rather cases are dealt with based on the alternative care procedure which includes three aspects: supportive, supplemental and substitutive.

According to her, in the first line of care which is the supportive, families are intact but are subject to stress, for example, marital conflict and domestic violence but if stress continues after family counselling, parent education and parent assistance is provided this may result in structural break up such as separation.

The second aspect which is the supplemental is where the parent-child relationship is somewhat impaired because of a significant aspect of the parental role is inadequately covered, but with supplemental assistance the child can continue to live at home without harm. The services provided in this situation includes day care, financial assistance/income maintenance and protective and other welfare service.

The substitutive, which is the third line of care, comes into effect where the situation is very damaging so as to require either temporary or permanent dissolution of the parent-child relationship. This is where the child/children are placed in institutional care, foster care, under legal guardianship or put up for adoption.

Although it is usually the last resort, she said, the CC&PA will not hesitate to remove a child/children from homes if whatever is happening is putting them at risk.

 

Wandering

Meanwhile, Greene is once more making a case for children found wandering to be treated with compassion rather than being placed before the court as is the norm at present.

According to Greene, it has long been known that children found wandering had been subjected to various forms of abuse, though there was no empirical data to confirm this. She stressed that she has heard from many children that the reason for them wandering is because they are victims of abuse in their homes and they are therefore of the belief that the streets are safer than home.

However, she revealed that a recent analysis showed that a lot of children wandering are serious delinquents and have parents that support their delinquency therefore contributing to the issue. She said some are used by the criminally minded and are forced to commit petty offences such as break and enter and larceny.

UNICEF representative for Guyana and Suriname Marianne Flach had also recently raised the issue at a discussion with Attorney General Basil Williams about children being sent to the New Opportunity Corps (NOC) for wandering. “We are concerned for instance that 75 % of the young people who are there are being locked up for wandering… and we think that should not be the case. There should be other correctional facilities… and they should be much closer to the family institutions,” she said.

Flach said UNICEF’s position is that Guyana needs to look at solutions that are more family oriented. Additionally, she related that if this is done then the number of children being sent to the NOC will be reduced paving the way for more attention to be paid to special needs and helping children in conflict with the law reintegrate into society subsequent to their release.

During November 2012, the Ministry of Human Service and Social Security (now Ministry of Social Protection) in collaboration with UNICEF launched the Tell Scheme with the hope that children who are victims of sexual abuse will be encouraged to speak out.

Giving an overview of the scheme, Tell Scheme Expert Alex Graham had said that the scheme was specifically designed to encourage disclosure about child abuse. He had noted that innocent children who are preyed upon are made to feel guilty by their offenders, as though they are the ones who are wrong. The children’s rights are being jeopardized and their integrity is being trampled on in the name of secrecy, he had stated.

Following this, UNICEF and the Guyana Government had signed a US$1,645,956 contract during March of last year for the annual work plan for the year 2014, which targets the development of children’s rights. The work plan came from the 2012-2016 country programme, which was developed by the government and UNICEF in pursuit of children’s rights and gender equality.