THE implementation of greater child protection policies will be on the front burner in 2016, says Minister of Social Protection Volda Lawrence, who was reviewing her ministry’s achievements in 2015 and unveiling projections for the new year.Minister Lawrence was at the time addressing the ministry’s first end-of-year press conference on Wednesday at the Millennium Manor Hotel, Hadfield Street, Georgetown.
INCREASES IN OLD AGE PENSION
Highlighting other priorities for the new year, the minister declared: “Guyanese will continue to benefit from improved safety nets, including significant increases in the Old Age Pension; a stronger focus on gender mainstreaming, including crafting a national policy; stricter enforcement of the nation’s labour laws; greater child protection policies; increased and more timely responses to social ills; and more frequent consultations with stakeholders on the way forward.”
Reflecting on progress made during the last seven months of 2015, through the APNU+AFC administration, Lawrence expressed satisfaction and observed that “The last seven months have been exciting, educative and at times extremely energy-sapping.”

It was exciting because of the novel things they have been implementing and the many lessons the Ministry of Social Protection learned through feedback from the public they serve, and energy-sapping because of the sheer size of the ministry.

However, the minister acknowledged that the challenges faced by the Ministry of Social Protection are myriad: “Finding a permanent solution for the ongoing war against our children is nightmarish; the brutal, bloody and ever so often, life-ending assaults against our women must end; the callous disregard for our elderly is alarming; and those who are temporarily, or permanently, homeless must not be left to the vagaries of Mother Nature or the unnatural tendencies of the heartless among us.”
CHILD CARE
Meanwhile, Director of the Child Care and Protection Agency, Anne Greene, revealed that for the year 2015, there were reports of over 3,000 children being abused, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. Most of the cases reported involved neglect, followed by sexual abuse. Some 500 had to be placed in foster care as a last resort, but the big problem is that even though reports are made, the culprits are seldom caught.
But while there is need for refuge for children who have been abused in diverse ways by predators and others, the Ministry of Social Protection has made it clear that institutionalisation for juveniles is not the answer and does not work. “We have to get children out of institutions,” Greene stressed.
MORE DAY CARE CENTRES
And noting that child protection is everybody’s business, she said that the ministry is seriously working towards de-institutionalisation of children, giving preference to foster care. Cognisant that children hardly overcome ‘abuse’, Greene said that the ministry is now calling for a proactive rather than reactive approach to child care and safety. “We have to strengthen families so that they can take better care of children,” Greene said. There are also plans on the cards for the opening up of a lot more day care centres.

Achievements in 2015
Meanwhile, Minister Lawrence said that among the myriad challenges her ministry faces, is the problem of removing the Amerindian population from the periphery of national development. She added that with assistance from the Canadian government, the ministry is training a number of these Guyanese to be ‘ambassadors’ who will help bridge existing gaps as “we pursue development of their communities to help them beat the pinch of poverty.”
And within the seven months of 2015 that the coalition has been in government, the ministry created its own Public Relations Department to ensure that through the media, the public remains au fait with the ongoing plans, policies and programmes of the new government.
GENDER AFFAIRS BUREAU
Additionally, the ministry is merging the Men’s Affairs and Women’s Affairs Bureaus into a single unit to be named the Gender Affairs Bureau in keeping with the government’s vision and global trends. This unit will be launched early in the new year.
The minister said that, in keeping with government’s vision, the ministry has also delinked the Probation Department from the broader Social Services programme to have a more focused approach and to help in resolving some of the ongoing challenges and struggles faced by individuals and families.
This focused approach, she said, is by design: “It is part of the reason for the ministry’s name change because we believe that all Guyanese deserve ‘the good life.” She declared that the government believes that it MUST support all Guyanese through improved service delivery, greater efficiency and cutting the response time in meeting public needs.
However, while the Ministry of Social Protection wants to run with its programmes, they are hamstrung by a staff shortage in the Labour Department; staff shortage in the Accounts Department; and staff shortage in the Child Care and Protection Agency.
In addition, there is the perennial shortage of funding to finance the initiatives the ministry has been conceiving.
Expressing confidence that victory is imminent, Lawrence said: “As I see it, we will beat the odds: against all odds we triumphed at the May 11 polls; against the odds we hiked salaries for public servants and provided those earning less than $500,000 per month a $50,000 to help brighten their Christmas festivities; against the odds we have also increased Old Age pension payments. We are finding ways to overcome the existing challenges we confront and we plan doing so in the future.”
Minister Lawrence gave the assurance that in 2016 the nation can look forward for priority placement on Early Childhood Development; the opening of the Family Court; priority placement on Early Childhood Development; and the critical Counter Trafficking in Persons (C-TIP) Unit to be enhanced with additional staff to combat existing and emerging challenges.
And good news for the pensioners: they will now receive a book to cover the calendar year instead of the traditional six months, and by 2017, their ID cards will replace the books.
The existing Women of Worth (WOW) programme will become gender-neutral.
Meanwhile Lawrence anticipates the ministry’s relationship with NGOs will be wider in breadth and deeper in scope. Improvement programmes are on the cards for such facilities as the Night Shelter; The Palms Geriatric Home; the Hugo Chavez Centre for Rehabilitation and Re-integration; the Guyana Women’s Leadership Institute, and the Board of Industrial Training (BIT).
The minister alluded to plans for the creation of a Special Projects Unit dedicated to finding willing donors to fund the many initiatives the ministry is currently pursuing and the multitude of others in the pipeline for the new year.
Other speakers included Gavin Munroe, Chief Probation and Social Services Officer; Lorene Baird, Permanent Secretary; Charles Ogle, Chief Labour Officer; and Whentworth Tanner, Director of Social Services.

By Shirley Thomas