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THE new Mahaica Children’s Home, which was constructed with the financial support of Digicel Guyana, is to be commissioned by this month-end or early next month.
This is according to Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Jennifer Webster who said, in an interview with the Guyana Chronicle yesterday, that the ministry is awaiting the safe removal of the children from the present home to the new one before it is commissioned.
She stated that this exercise is being done currently and should be completed by the end of this month.
Meanwhile, Director of the Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA), Ms. Ann Greene, in a recent interview, had said that the construction of the home, which will now be an all-girls facility, has been completed and it is ready for commissioning.
The new facility was constructed in the compound which currently houses the children’s home, aback of the existing building.
Greene said that the girls from that old facility will be moving over to the new building, while the boys have already been relocated; some of them have been reintegrated with biological family members, some placed in foster care and others in other homes.
Live-in Training Centre
According to her, the ministry is looking to turn the Mahaica home into a live-in training centre where there will be specialised training for girls.
“We’re empowering girls so that no one will ever be able to take advantage of them,” she remarked.
Greene further noted that the CCPA has an independent living skills programme, which includes transitional housing, for children who are close to “aging out” at 18 years old.
“We have a life skills programme and it includes transitional housing. So we’re working with them from like 16, for those of them who can’t go back home…they have to get skills so that they can get jobs and they can live on their own,” she related.
She further explained that with the transitional housing element, the CCPA would help find accommodation for persons who have “aged out” and would even assist in paying the rent for the first two months.
However, she stressed that they do not “kick out” anyone as soon as she has reached age 18, if that person is not prepared to live on their own, adding that there is one girl who is now 20 and still living in one of the homes.
Meanwhile, Human Services Minister Webster and officials of Digicel Guyana, in January, visited the construction site of the Mahaica home and at that time had indicated that its construction was expected to be completed by August this year.
The entire project, including the furnishing of the building upon completion, is being financed by Digicel Guyana and Greene stated that this is a good example of state and private sector partnership.
“Digicel helped us and this is what we’re looking for…we need people to come on board and help us, so it’s a tangible support,” she said.
