SIX children, ranging from six months to seven years old have been removed from the custody of their alcoholic parents and a life in shabbiness at Sister’s Village, after reports surface on social media highlighting their family’s plight.Just a stone’s throw away from the recently closed Wales Estate, the children, their mother and their father have been residing in a 12×12 room, furnished with only two beds, and the walls lined with newspaper.
The father, a fisherman, often goes away at sea for two-week periods, while the mother usually leaves the children home alone.
The father makes a fair living, but would fritter away his earnings, mostly on alcohol. Whatever little money the mother gets she would reportedly follow-suit.
The older three children, aged 10, seven and six years old were removed from the home by kind-hearted citizens, and are said to be staying in Parfait Harmonie.
The younger of three siblings, the six-month-old and two-year-old fraternal twins, were reportedly removed from the home on Wednesday by the Child Care Protective Agency (CCPA).
One of the twins, a boy, is apparently deaf and dumb.
An older 14-year-old sibling is allegedly residing on the West Coast of Demerara with a family member.
Popular Facebook page “Guyanese Ting’zz” highlighted the children’s predicament after their mother abandoned them.
Sister’s Village resident John Buck was dismayed at the children’s situation.
“Hear wah go on with them two this (the children’s parents): both ah them ah drink hard. Plenty time she ah go way and left the children them. The gyal ah deh sport all over West Coast, Caribbean Temptations and them place dah,” he said.
He explained that the children’s mother is his wife’s niece, and back in July he agreed to let the family stay at the property until they could find a better arrangement. Buck’s kindness was however taken for granted.
The children’s father promised to change his family’s fate as soon as he got some money, but never followed through with his promise. The man is also reportedly abusive to the children and their mother.
“Me girl back them up and thing, but when the man come from sea the man gone and drink out all he money. When we call the captain, the captain seh he [the father] come with $65,000, but he nah come hey and give he gyal even money to buy a pint rice. Me never really see am sober since he come from sea. Beat? He ah beat she bad,” he related.
In a bid to address the situation, the employer of the children’s father would at times hold back some of the fisherman’s pay, then remit same to the children’s mother. But it was out of the frying pan into the fire.
“The man captain know she [the children’s mother] good. When she go the man [boss] guh give she a portion of the money if he know the man [children’s father] ah go drink out the money. When she collects the portion though she ah go one next bar wah she man nah deh and she start sport too. So when the two ah them link up now when them broken then them ah head fuh come back ah Wales now. And them come back and them rice can empty.”
Buck is often forced to take care of the abandoned children, but could do so no more as he is facing hard times.
“Everyday me gah run and find food fuh them, but now is out ah grinding down hey, how much children me can look after? You ah try to assist with them but how much you can assist? Three meal a day yuh gah assist?” Buck questioned.
The CCPA has been trying to assist the family for some months now. In July, they got two family members to sign a contract saying that they would look over and care for the children.
Buck said a CCPA representative would visit often and at times bring things, but the parents would not change their ways.