Grand concert for children from the orphanages
THE Child Care and Protection Agency, in its continued effort towards protecting children in Guyana, yesterday hosted its first ‘Children’s Christmas concert’ in grand style at the National Cultural Centre.

Minister Priya Manickchand and her husband, Army Captain Bhageshwar Murli, enjoying the concert for children yesterday at the NCC.

The Agency, which was launched by President Bharrat Jagdeo in July of this year, is part of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration’s commitment to comprehensively reform and implement positive changes in children affairs.

“Its mandate is to look after the children of Guyana,” said Minister of Human Services and Social Security Mrs. Priya Manickchand, who attended yesterday’s concert with her husband, Army Captain Bhageshwar Murli.

The show was organised primarily for children residing in orphanages as well as those making up vulnerable groups and the programme included a number of group songs and dances, poems and skits.

Children from various orphanages and Children’s homes performed including those from the Berbice Anjuman, St. Ann’s Orphanage, Prabhu Sharon Home, the Drop In Centre, Joshua’s Home, Sophia Care Centre and the Mahaica Children’s Home.

Briefing the media yesterday, Minister Manickchand said all those who performed at the function are from orphanages.

She remarked that the concert was intended to achieve several things. “By hosting this concert, we are able to bring-in the spirit of Christmas, to boost the confidence of the children and to highlight that they are perfectly normal children, just like your biological children, who are capable of doing better once given a chance.”

According to her, many persons are of the opinion that it is best for children to live in a home environment as compared with receiving institutional care.

Minister Manickchand acknowledged that 65 percent of the children in Guyana, who are in orphanages, really ought to be in homes. “We hope that today’s concert will show people that these children are perfectly normal and should be taken into a natural home environment,” said Manickchand, an avid child care and protection advocate.

The Child Care and Protection Agency Bill was passed in the National Assembly in January this year and its functions include the monitoring of child care facilities to allow the agency to intervene in cases where there is child abuse.

At the launch, Minister Manickchand noted that “it is the beginning of a dream come true” and she observed that child protection in Guyana has taken on a new meaning over the last few years, with the beginning of an interest in and attention being paid to child protection and vulnerable children.

“Our strategy is simple. We pay attention to all our children. We remove from difficult circumstances those children who are finding themselves, for whatever reasons, neglected…we then place them in temporary care,” she said.

“Our first choice is to reintegrate those children with their families; intense work shall be done in this regard (and) where children cannot be reintegrated with their families, we will then explore whether they can be fostered and to this end, we are in the process of finalising our official set of foster care applications,” she continued.

“Where foster care is not an option, or where adoption will be better, we are going to facilitate adoption both locally as well as overseas,” she also remarked.