NEGLECTED children in Guyana, often the subject of abuse and exploitation, continue to be provided with a way out through the Sophia Care Centre, an institution under the Child Protection Agency (CPA).

While collaborations between the institution and specialists have resulted in positive changes in the lives of youths, the Centre hopes that as Guyana develops rapidly in the coming years, greater emphasis is placed on increasing the number of caseworkers involved in the process.

Two years ago, it was estimated that there were some 700 children at the country’s 23 care institutions, with about 165 in State care.

While the majority of care institutions are privately-owned, those which come under the government include the Drop-in-Centre, the Mahaica Children’s Home, and the Sophia Care Centre.

The latter, according to Social Service Assistant Margaret Elgin, houses over 80 individuals, with an almost equal ratio of boys to girls.

She said many of them are former street children in their teenage years, and are brought in by the Child Protection Agency.

“Once they are seen on the street wandering and not going to school and things like that, that’s how they are [eventually] brought in,” she said.

Meanwhile, administrator of the Sophia Care Centre, Roxanne Blenman, added: “Street children are picked up by the juvenile police, and they come through the Child Protection Agency… We have children here for different situations [such as] neglect, sexual abuse and physical abuse.”

The Drop-in Centre is the first stop of a child, after which the child can transition to the Care Centre and, if after reaching the age of 18, the individual is not able to be reintegrated, they are housed at the half-way house to receive continued assistance to help them emerge into the world of work.

Presently, a new $220M centre is being constructed in Sophia, and will serve as separate housing for children, newly off the streets, providing them with the specific care and training needed.

CHILDREN AND FAMILY CENTRE
Director of Child Protection, Ann Greene told reporters last month that the centre will no longer be called a “drop-in centre” but will be a Children and Family Centre which will make a difference in the lives of vulnerable children and families.

In the meantime, children newly off the streets are being temporarily housed at the Sophia Care Centre.

Questioned on some of the challenges faced by the institution, administrator explained that while challenges are expected in such situations, how or when the child re-integrates into society depends on a number of factors.

“We will always have challenges because they are from different backgrounds; different environments,” Blenman said.

“It doesn’t matter what you do you still encounter the same things because children come with their own issues and how they feel about themselves. So it doesn’t matter what challenge we’re faced with, eventually the psychologists; the counselors and the caseworkers try to work with them but it all depends on the child; how the child perceives; receives and how they execute what they would have been taught.”

After being taught at the institution, Blenman said the youths are re-integrated with family members while some are placed in foster care as a temporary fix.

“We have quite a few success stories. We have children, who are now adults and parents themselves, who were here and they are success stories. We have boys that have gone off to the army and police force; girls that have gone off to various places to work even at Emerge [BPO Services Inc.]. Even some that were reintegrated we find that their parents can say that they have seen changes in that child,” she said.

She attributed the successes not only to the staff working at the institution but to directors; case workers and other senior members of the Child Protection Agency.

MORE CARE WORKERS
However, in the coming years Blenman wants to see additional attention being placed on sourcing additional care workers who can better help a child to open up and move past a difficult challenge faced.

“We would like to see more of the case workers involved in the lives of the children,” Blenman began.

“They are the ones that are trained and have their degrees and so on in that field and they know more about getting penetrating [information]. Some children are locked-in, they don’t always tell us what’s going on in their hearts but they [case workers] tend to penetrate that based on their skills and their knowledge. So, I would like to see social workers play a more integral part in the lives of the clients that we have here.”
Blenman has been working at the institution for some 11 years.

She is positive that while the children who come under the care of the CPA are often challenged with the pending developments and the efforts of stakeholders in the field, the Care Centre can continue to provide a way out.

“[Neglected children] have their own scars; their own pain that we can’t take away from them. But we have to try to help them to get over it and it’s not an easy task,” Blenman said.

“To get a child, [perhaps] a girl-child to get over the pain of something that someone close to her would have done, that’s where the challenges come but we still have to do it. [In the case of] mental health issues, some we don’t know of until we see the acting out of strange behaviours and then you know that they have mental health issues. So we have to work with them to bring them to a place where they can understand ‘you are cared for here’,” Sophia Care Centre administrator said.