VERY often we hear people say men are to be blamed for not participating in their children’s lives, but the Laws of Guyana do not cater for a man’s participation in their upbringing. In my opinion they only serve to reduce a man’s contribution to their children’s lives to that of financial donor.

My personal experience is with a judge in a custody matter where the mother of my child applied for custody and without an investigation the ruling was made in favour of the applicant.

The applicant is poorly educated, unemployed, alcoholic and a party junkie who lives in a two bedroom house with another child, a sister (adult) and her father. No one in their household is even capable of assisting the child academically. Yet the judge saw her as the best person to take care of the child, as opposed to a man who’s in a stable job, earning a stable income, has two diplomas, owns a comfortable home and has a good standard of living.

If this is an example of how justice works when it comes to child custody matters in Guyana, is it any wonder that so many men are not present in their children’s lives?
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