– More than 350 reports of child abuse, neglect or maltreatment recorded

By Shirley Thomas
THE tragic story of two male infants being burnt to death in a fire that razed the Drop-in Centre in Georgetown on Thursday has evoked renewed calls for family-based care for less fortunate children.Director of the Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA), Ms. Anne Greene, in an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, said there are many children who would be better off in foster care.
Government, through its home-based or Foster Care Programme, has been able to place 179 children in foster care with 111 parents of recent. But against a backdrop of more than 350 reports of child abuse, neglect or maltreatment, there is an ever increasing need for more foster care parents.

And such would have been the ideal setting for the five siblings, two of whom perished in that blaze on Thursday. Six-year-old Joshua George and two-year-old Antonio George had been admitted to the Drop-in Centre only the day before the fire. Greene said that while the ideal setting for the five children (including one girl) would have been home-based care, the decision to place them at the Hadfield Street Drop-in Centre was the best at the time.

She recalled that from the moment they visited the home the children were living in and saw the conditions there, they immediately decided that the children could not be allowed to go on living there. She said that, in the circumstances, the CCPA Office did its level best to bring relief to the suffering children. The case had been reported to them on four occasions, Greene disclosed, and opined that the five siblings had been rescued from almost inhumane conditions on Wednesday.

“It is unfortunate that this happened. We were called to protect them, and responded professionally and compassionately; but then something happens and we are made to look bad.
We are professional people with a love for the job, and who have the interest of the children foremost at heart and work 24/7,” she explained.

Greene expressed disappointment and disgust at the coverage of the incident by a certain section of the media. She said the coverage sought to lay blame on her and the CCPA, and make them look culpable when in fact they were not, she said. She expressed the view that people who are talking do not understand child protection and its implications.

Moreover, Green said that as public servants, they (at the CCPA) have to work with the government of the day, and deliver faithfully and professionally. She said her hard working staffers are disheartened at the negative comments being made by some people on the basis of misinformation or because they have an agenda.

“We [at the CPA] do not have an agenda. Any agenda we have is to protect the children,” she declared.

Greene said that following the fire, the three other George siblings, along with the other displaced children, totalling 29, were taken to the Sophia Centre and Half Way Home, where they are currently being accommodated until a better arrangement can be worked out for them.

“We have the other three (siblings); they are still in care, but, so far, no family member has come forward. We want somebody (a relative) to come forward,” she said.

Commenting on what the director describes as some unfortunate comments made on social media and elsewhere, calling for the children to be returned to the home from which they were rescued, Ms. Green said that is unthinkable.

“They cannot stay in that horrible house with that horrible man,” she declared as she lamented what the children were forced to endure.

Meanwhile, in keeping with Government’s thrust to promote family-based care and use institutional care only as a last resort, the decision to admit the children to the Hadfield Street Drop-in Centre was but a transitional arrangement, valid only until a long-term arrangement could have been worked out for them, Greene said; but sadly, she expressed, the two boys perished before that could have been done.

Minister of Social Protection, Volda Lawrence, had, during Foster Care Month, reminded that the Ministry of Social Protection is moving to attract more foster families. In her message to mark the start of Child Protection Week, Minister Lawrence had noted that there are presently 179 children in foster care with 111 parents.

She said the ministry is working to increase those numbers, so that every child in Guyana who cannot be reunited with his/her biological family would still have a chance to experience a safe and comfortable home with either a foster or adoptive family.

“The Ministry of Social Protection, through the Child Care and Protection Agency, seeks to place on the front burner the urgent need for reuniting children across the country — especially those in orphanages and state institutions — with their families, or providing alternative families for them.

“To meet this need, the Ministry of Social Protection and its partners are committed to strengthening and supporting families. This thrust is in keeping with this year’s (2015) theme, ‘Strengthening Families to Protect Children’, she said.

And noting that the family has the primary responsibility for the nurturing and protection of the child as well as ensuring permanency, safety and well-being, the Minister said it is most unfortunate that the Child Care and Protection Agency has received more than 350 reports of child abuse, neglect or maltreatment through its hotline, and that more than 128 children were placed in care outside of their home.

Of the 800-plus children in institutional care, only 17 have been reunited with their biological families for the year 2015. Statistics show that persons raised in dysfunctional families frequently report difficulties in their adult life. The Minister added that, with specialized support, families are capable of providing the necessary care, resulting in those very children leading healthy, productive lives in society.