An announcement by the Caribbean American Domestic Violence Awareness (CADVA) group last week that it has begun working with the surviving children of domestic homicide is laudable and worthy of emulation. CADVA said it had so far found a few children and had commenced the difficult task of locating others as there was limited information on what had happened to them after their parents had either both died or one parent had died and the other was incarcerated.
The group, referring to the children left behind as silent victims, noted that their plight was seldom addressed, though in some cases they had been witnesses to murders and that prior to the murders they might have been exposed to constant physical, mental and emotional abuse directed mainly at their mothers. In most instances, too, these children were also subjected to abuse at the hands of one or both parents.
It is perturbing, though not completely surprising that there is no database of children affected by domestic homicide. For one thing, it is clear that the magnitude of the problem is not fully recognized; and for another, there is simply not enough staff at the Ministry of Social Protection’s Child Care and Protection Agency to keep a handle on an issue that is nothing short of a smouldering powder keg.
The lack of personnel to deal with child care issues, which are varied and many—ranging from neglect to different forms of abuse—is a well-known litany to which, it seems, no one pays any attention. Apart from being raised ad nauseam in this column for at least two decades, Head of the Child Care and Protection Agency Ann Greene has said several times in interviews with various media houses that her staff is hard pressed to address all of the cases reported to it in a timely manner.
Yet, over the years, although there has been a steady stream of social work graduates emerging from the University of Guyana annually, there has never been any real attempt to beef up the number of case workers. And while one understands the reluctance to add numbers to the public service, the sheer magnitude of the problem the country will face in a few years’ time should trump that hesitancy.
Or else, perhaps a way could be found to have UG graduates, many of whom are indebted to the government, repay their loans by way of service, even on a part time basis.
Speaking of the trauma silent victims endure, CADVA Head Dianne Madray said: “They have either seen the actual events of physical abuse, heard the threats and sounds of loud arguing and fighting… and observed the aftermath of physical abuse such as blood, bruises, tears, torn clothing, broken items and even death of a parent…”
What she left unsaid was the devastating long-term effects such distress has on the human psyche, but this is well known. Countless studies have demonstrated the increased likelihood of children who have been abused and who witness or are otherwise exposed to abuse growing up to join the relentless cycle either as the abuser or the abused. Children learn what they live.
What happens to silent victims here is not really known. One hopes that at the very least they are availed of some form of counselling. Given the known preference of the Child Care Agency, for the most part they would be placed with relatives once these could be found, if not, they would become wards of the state.
In the best case scenario, these children should be exposed to ongoing therapy, which in some cases could last months and in others years, as each individual’s coping mechanism is different. Sadly, because of the constraints noted above, this is unlikely to be the case. In the worst-case scenario, the child ends up with relatives who either never talk about the domestic homicide in the mistaken view that blanking it will help the child to forget and adjust, or use it as a form of abuse or punishment because they resent having to take care of the child/children left behind.
These are all extremely damaging to the children concerned and do not augur well for posterity.
CADVA is therefore to be commended for assuming what will be an extremely trying task and one hopes that this non-governmental organisation gets the support of not only the authorities in its proposed holistic approach to the healing of silent victims, but its peers in the NGO community as well.
