THE Ministry of Social Protection has a parenting skills programme which is held in different regions of Guyana through the Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA). The participants are parents who have either been recommended by social workers or who’ve come to the attention of the CPA through one reason or another.

The objective of the programme is not to blame or shame parents because of their lack of parental knowledge, but to empower parents to discover and acquire new parenting skills through shared knowledge, self-examination and by learning facts about good parenting.
Some parents need help because they do not understand what their parental duties are, or how their actions and words can negatively impact their child’s future. This is Alana’s story.
I was nearly 13 years old when I overheard my mother talking to her friend Carla on the phone: she was talking about me and my heart sank when I heard her say ‘…yes girl, she hips spreading and she getting breast… she soon get belly’.

Back then I thought: so this is the future my mother has already mapped out for me in her mind and I did not understand. Why would she want that kind of life for me? A life with no purpose: a life with no hope. I was entering the second year of my secondary school and yes, she was right, my body was changing. It was difficult enough getting used to the changes and all that came along with them, without overhearing her comments which merely confirmed for me, what I had felt deep inside all along: my mother did not have my best interest at heart.

It’s just as well that my grandmother on my father’s side took the time and cared enough to help me out the best she could. Granny Evie was always happy to have me stay by her and although it was just a small bedroom with a front room and kitchen, it was ‘home’ and I knew I was more than welcome there; and I knew I was very much loved.

When I think of Granny Evie, I realise the value of that type of love. The love that Granny Evie gave me cannot be bought or sold. It was a love that had time and patience, a love that is so important to a growing girl. Granny Evie made me believe I could achieve anything to which I would put my mind. She made me feel beautiful and special. She gave me confidence to do well and to be proud of my achievements. If it weren’t for her input, I would have been left in the hands of my mother and would have followed the path she set before me: a teenage mother with very little education and no prospect for work, for further education or betterment in life.

I would probably end up living in a small rented room with my “child-father” which would no doubt lead to stress and frustration. And then, when we got fed up of each other and he moved out and left me, I most probably would find a next man to mind me and my child, then before long I’d have a child for him too, which would then make four of ‘we’ in one little room living a frustrated lifestyle.

I know the pattern all too well because it is the story of my mother’s life. The only difference is: I was her ‘third born’ child for her ‘second child-father’. And we were living a frustrating lifestyle in that little room when Granny Evie took me to her home for a while, which turned into months and then years. Visits to my mother occurred only at weekends and on school holidays.

I am now age 17 and because of this intervention I can proudly say that I have not got a ‘belly’, neither do I intend to be getting one anytime soon. My outlook is on higher things in life; I have goals to accomplish and a life to build for myself, thanks to Granny Evie’s guidance and love.
To find out if there will be a parenting skills programme in your area this year, call the CPA on (227-4420)

If you are concerned about the welfare of a child ring the CPA hotline on 227 0979 or write to childcaregy@gmail.com
A MESSAGE FROM THE CHILDCARE AND PROTECTION AGENCY, MINISTRY OF SOCIAL PROTECTION