SOME of Guyana’s children are under serious psychological pressure, brought on by episodes of violence and abuse perpetrated by, or directed at, members of their families. And in some cases, this state of flux lasts a lifetime.“Children are caught up in the violence!” said Nicole Cole, Commissioner on the Rights of the Child Commission, as she recently sounded the alarm at a press conference held by the Women and Gender Equality Commission.
“Arian Gill!” she said. “I think she remains the youngest victim to have died by violence. Please don’t forget her!” the rights activist pleaded with reporters.
Cole has asked the media to “remember Arian Gill”, the 13-month-old girl who was shot dead allegedly by her grandmother’s jilted lover on October 18 at Lot 38 Eastville, East Coast Demerara (ECD). Arian’s 12-year-old aunt, Ashley Norton, was also shot twice in her leg and was hospitalised.
Guyana Chronicle revisits some of the events in which Guyana’s children were caught up in violence over the years, causing some to be ruthlessly murdered while others continue living with wounds.
Just weeks ago, five-year-old Nashan Wharton was shot in his leg during an ordeal in Festival City, North Ruimveldt Georgetown, when his 37-year-old father Christopher Wharton was executed in cold blood while he watched. Two gun-toting young men had reportedly approached the home and called his father out.
In February 2013, nine-year-old Terrencia Patterson, the daughter of domestic violence survivor Tomeicka Miller-Patterson, watched as her father savagely stabbed her mom more than 27 times, almost killing her. He later committed suicide.
Six-year-old Kimberly Houston and her two-year-old brother Tariq Lord were murdered by their 26-year-old cane harvester dad, Richard Lord, on July 31, 2013. The two were innocent victims of a tragic melee that started when their drunken father went berserk and butchered his family, leaving their mother Natasha Houston, also known as Bibi Nazreena, with a severed right arm and only one and a half fingers on her left hand.
Lord had used his cane harvesting cutlass to commit the brutal crimes, after abducting his run-away family and beating Houston all day long, alleging that she was unfaithful to him.
SKELETAL REMAINS
His skeletal remains were found hanging in the backlands of Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo, where he had committed the act.
Nine-year-old Christine Sookra was shot dead on August 28, 2004, as her family hid in a bedroom while bandits riddled their home with bullets after being unable to gain entry.
Jermaine Herod was 11 years old when his father, Raul Herod, a Securicor operations supervisor, went crazy on July 7, 1999 and shot dead his entire family. Jermaine had run for his life after receiving a bullet to his jaw.
The incident occurred at their home at Lot 36 Sideline Dam Buxton, East Coast Demerara, where the man armed himself with a gun and shot seven persons, including four children — Jonelle Herod, aged 11; Erwin Herod, 15; Rodel Herod, 7; and Adele Nandy Herod, aged 14.
Rawle Herod also shot dead his 97-year-old grandmother, Angela Herod; his mother, Shirley Cole-Herod, 60; and his aunt, Patricia Harris, 58, before he set their cottage afire and killed himself.
Jermaine was the only person to survive the tragedy, after he ran to neighbours for rescue.
In 1994, at Buxton, a cocaine addict called Baby Arthur brandished a cutlass and killed six persons, three of whom were children -– 16-year-old Shawn; 7-year-old Melissa France, and 2-year-old Semple. Among the adults he butchered were Bunny Joseph, Maude Hatton and his own mother, Hyacinth.
SADISTIC
Cole calls those killings barbaric, sadistic (and) inhumane! She said the fact that “children are being killed along with women points to a society in decadence, a Hobbesian State wherein life in Guyana has become nasty, brutish, and short”.
Meanwhile, Coordinator and Director of Help and Shelter, Margaret Kertzious, in an interview with this publication, spoke about children caught in domestic violence having to move with their parents into the facilities of Help and Shelter, a place of refuge for battered women. She revealed that, over the years, the organisation has housed numerous children, and it currently houses more than 25.
On an annual basis, she said, more than 100 children seek shelter at the home, which accommodates more of the youngsters than their abused parents.
Kertzious said that when a woman approaches her office for help, the matter is reported and an intake form is prepared, recording relevant information on the victim, before a case history is presented on the incidences of abuse that woman would have experienced.
“Most times these women have children. Sometimes they come in (with) six children. The home that we have provides for her to walk with her children if she cares to, so they’re involved in growing up and being with her.
“Since she has been going through domestic violence, it’s most obvious that the children are involved in it. They’re part of it. They’re part of the family,” Kertzious said.
These children are being displaced, and some of them suffer emotionally as a result; but the agency and the ministry’s social workers counsel and comfort them.
They attend schools and live normal lives, but in a new environment.
Kertzious told the Chronicle that most children who have been affected by violence eventually become violent when they become adults.
“They might accept the abuse… so that is how children are caught up in it,” she said.
The shelter is manned by Help and Shelter and the Ministry of Social Protection, but it needs someone to assist in caring for the children. Kertzious said it is sometimes difficult for the children’s mother, already displaced and distressed, to care for all her children while seeking refuge and being involved in the process of recovery.

By Shauna Jemmott