While some persons spent the last days of 2015 making New Year’s resolutions about getting fit, or saving money, Administrator Guyana Red Cross Society Children’s Convalescent Home Ewin Enmore’s hope is that the institution could be made more child-friendly in the new year.
The original home was commissioned as the Princess Elizabeth Children’s Convalescent Home at Kingston on 31 October, 1951 while the current building which is located at D’Urban Backlands was officially commissioned as the Guyana Red Cross Society Children’s Convalescent Home in June, 1980 by then president LFS Burnham.
According to Enmore, who has been administrator for the past four years, the home works along with Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA) to provide a safe haven for children aged five years and under, who have been the victims of abuse, negligence and abandonment. With an employee roll of 25 including cleaners, laundresses, caregivers and kitchen staff along with the capacity to house 35 children, the home currently caters to the needs of 15 children.
Noting that safe havens need to be safe, Enmore said the building was rewired for the first time since it was first commissioned thanks to furniture giant Courts. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done including new plumbing and general resurfacing of the building and he hopes to get it all done in the new year. Enmore’s aim is to also raise the standard of the institution, but this will only be possible if the resources become available.
More importantly, Enmore wants to see more being done as it relates to the welfare of the children resident there.
While noting the main objective is to offer a temporary home for children while the CCPA works to have them either reintegrated with their biological families or adopted, Enmore explained that some have been at the home for 4-5 years and begin to age out. When this happens, the girls would be transferred to St Ann’s Girls Orphanage while the boys go to St John Bosco. Special efforts are made to have siblings placed in institutions that cater for both genders so that they would not have to be separated.
“This is all they know and then when they age out from one institution they are placed into another until they turn 18,” Enmore explained while adding that being institutionalized for extended periods not only slows the development of the child but also fosters anti-social behaviours. He said that although the children may not always exhibit the signs, they are affected.
“Being in an institution is one thing, but being institutionalized is another thing, no child deserves to be in a children’s home,” he said.
However, he expressed the hope that 2016 will bring these children more opportunities to be either reintegrated with their families, fostered or adopted.
The need to see more professionals specializing in child mental health and psychology is something Enmore also hopes to see in the coming years as he feels differently abled children in such institutions are being short changed.
At present, the Convalescent Home has three differently abled children: four-year-old Rohita, nine-year-old Nadine and 10-year-old Kevin. Nadine and Kevin have outgrown the Convalescent Home, and the CCPA is looking for somewhere else that can provide them with the necessary care.
Enmore explained that Kevin, who suffers from mental retardation, needs special care in behaviour development as he often does not realize his strength when playing with the other children in the home. Professionals from the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre visit and work with Kevin and the other children on an ad-hoc basis.
None of the Convalescent Home’s care givers specialize in that specific area. He further revealed that although university students pursuing studies in social work have done internships at the Convalescent Home, they do not have the knowledge to deal with child psychology or behavioral development since their courses do not reach that depth of child psychology. He finds this lack very upsetting, since the child’s mental health and behavioral changes should be constantly monitored and reflected in the case file of each child. And while he noted that the CCPA is overwhelmed as it is, he explained that unless a child is scheduled to enter foster care, or adopted or the administration takes it upon themselves, this does not happen.
Therefore, he believes that more students in the field of social work should focus in those areas.
“Those are some of the issues that affect not only us here… but are echoed by other children’s homes as well,” he said.
However, the administrator of the children’s home remains thankful to both the corporate companies like Courts, Qualfon, Ashmins and Foot Steps for financial and together forms of support as well as those individuals who assist by preparing meals for the children or dropping off supplies.
Regardless of the challenges, the staff at the home try their best to provide a simple yet traditional, family-oriented Christmas season for the benefit of the children. “We don’t do anything big and fancy, we just try to bring that Christmas spirit to the children with toys and visits from Santa Claus. We try to set a Christmas tree and have a few Christmas parties as well,” Enmore related.
He said he encourages donors to donate gifts that are more educational as the organization is a big believer in early childhood education.
