TANISHA Williams suddenly burst into the office. Excitement in her voice. Elation on her face.
“I just won my first case,” she announced.
Williams is neither a prosecutor nor a defence attorney, but a University of Guyana (UG)-trained sociologist heading the Counter Trafficking In Persons (C-TIP) unit in the Ministry of Social Protection.
Winning her first TIP case was a salve for her wounded mind, tortured by the collapse of other cases for want of evidence and victims’ resolve.
“This case was won because of the high level of commitment displayed by the victim, her hunger for justice and because of the high level of dedication and professionalism of the C-TIP staff and other authorities,” Williams said.

The survivor’s commitment stood out because she never once wilted under the pressure of the six-month trial or was she scared to face-off with the accused Ms Juneann Joseph, who also conducted her own defence.
According to Williams, the TIP survivor “always enquired about the status of her case from the C-TIP unit.”
Williams believes the “hunger for justice” displayed by the teenaged TIP survivor secured the case against the accused Joseph of Charity, Essequibo, who operates a business at Melagee Backdam, Cuyuni River in Region 7 (Cuyuni/Mazaruni).
Joseph was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment on September 11 and ordered to pay G$100,000 (US$500) restitution by Magistrate Dylon Best presiding at the Bartica Magistrates’ Court.
Williams said this is the “first conviction in Guyana where the order of restitution was ordered for the survivor of human trafficking.”

“In addition, its significance also lies in the combating of TIP Act 2005 that the Act stipulates NOT that the defendant MAY but that the Court SHALL order the defendant to pay restitution to the victim under Section 111on Summary Conviction,” Williams further explained.

Continuing, she said “the Order Restitution shall compensate the victim for cost of medical and psychological treatment, cost of physical and occupational therapy and rehabilitation, cost of necessary transportation; temporary housing and child care; lost income, attorneys’ fees and other costs such as victim-advocate fees, compensation for emotional distress, pain and suffering and any other losses suffered by the victim.”

The law also provides for the restitution to be paid promptly to the victim upon conviction of the defendant.

Williams admits she is “not happy” with the quantum of restitution ordered by the court, because that cannot compensate the victim for the emotional distress, pain and suffering that she had faced.

In addition, “It can barely cover expenses for the survivor to return home to visit with loved ones,” Williams explained.

However, the Guyana Government in this instance, has undertaken to “foot the bill” for the survivor’s trip back to her Region 1 (Barima/Waini) community to be reintegrated with her family.

“Minister Volda Lawrence has committed her ministry to “footing the bill” to facilitate the proposed visit home,” Williams said.

Pablo Neruda, the Chilean Poet and Nobel Prize Winner was credited with saying “for now I ask no more than the justice of eating.” Magistrate Best ensured the survivor’s ‘hunger for justice’ ended with Neruda’s ‘justice of eating’.
“I am happy and satisfied with the decision made by the court,” the relieved 17-year- old survivor told Williams following the ruling.
Williams too is “elated that justice has been served. That a survivor of human trafficking has received justice for the inhuman suffering she has endured.”

Participants of the dark local TIP underworld should quake by the latest legal victory secured by the Social Protection Ministry. The win is testimony that although the justice system is bedevilled by chronic challenges,it is neither comatose nor dead as some are wont to feel.
“I am also happy to know that the system is working. Not to its optimum but it’s working,” Williams said.

She is heartened by recent announcements that “improvements are in the pipeline for the system.”

Williams’s earlier exuberance faded when the conversation turned to the identity of local TIP perpetrators. According to available local figures, women comprise some 90 percent of them. Between February 2014 and September 2015, the current period under Williams’s stewardship, 60 percent of the alleged masterminds behind the illegal business are women.

The abundance of the “fairer sex” in this criminal activity is a bitter pill for the C-TIP boss.
“I am disappointed to know that the perpetrator is a woman that could be the mother of this child,” she admitted, referring to convict Joseph who trafficked the teenager at Melagee Backdam.

Nevertheless, Williams believes they are used as perpetrators merely because it is “much easier” for girls to trust another woman.
“Women are no longer looking out for each other,” Williams lamented.

She believes too that a collapse of moral values across Guyana also helps sustain the trafficking-in-humans business here.

While many women might be looking the other way, Williams and her staff of three who have “seen and felt” the gut-wrenching pain of dozens of young people, especially girls, continually look upwards.
“Every day I pray for my victims. Every day I pray for justice in whatever form for them.”
The latest local TIP survivor plans to visit her family and return to the capital to pursue her life-long dreams. Though still a teenager and currently under the care of the Social Protection Ministry, she follows Les Brown’s belief that “If you take responsibility for yourself, you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams.”

Williams too has her own dreams she feels will help TIP survivors achieve their aspirations and prevent others being sucked into the dark underbelly of the shadowy human- trafficking business.

Heading the more robust national Task Force currently comprising representatives from the Guyana Police Force (GPF); the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GG&MC); the Ministries of Public Security, Indigenous People’s Affairs, Legal Affairs and Foreign Affairs.
Help and Shelter and the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) also make up the TIP Task Force.

To end the sinister, but, profitable business Williams also foresees a stronger, ongoing national education programme to reduce incidence of TIP here, plus a sustained capacity-building programme for C-TIP staff. She also wants stronger ties with non-governmental bodies (NGOs) and “a bigger budget to foster psycho-social support for TIP survivors.”

To survive one must be fed constantly and “… the good news to a hungry person is bread” reminded Bishop Desmond Tutu.
Williams might well have to decide whether she and the Social Protection Ministry want to develop the “habit of winning” when it comes to the trauma experienced by TIP victims and survivors.
The winning habit will demand that the growing list of those ensnared must be constantly fed.
“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one. I can feed only one person at a time. Just one, one, one,” that great soul Mother Teresa said.
Williams and the Ministry of Social Protection have started just there. (Contributed)