By Ravena Gildharie
THERE are over 600 children living in residential care facilities countrywide and despite the limitations, priority remains on reintegration of the kids with families after careful and well-structured reviews by relevant authorities.

In accordance with the state’s policy upheld by the Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA), each case is reviewed after six months to determine whether a child in the facility can be reunited with his/her family or alternatively, be placed in foster care or adoption. According to the CCPA, children are placed in the care facilities as a last resort after other avenues are explored.
“Normally, when we get these kids, we try to get an aunt or other family member to take in the kids, but sometimes you find there are personal issues that they can’t or won’t do it, so we have to send the kids to the care facilities,” a case worker explained.

Currently, the CCPA in collaboration with UNICEF and a non-governmental organisation, Blossom Incorporated, is implementing a special reunification project that reviews the status of children in ‘residential care facilities to determine whether they are eligible to return home.’
Reporting on the project recently, the Government Information Agency quoted the CCPA’s Director Ann Greene as saying that, “The children that could be returned to their biological families will be returned to them. We’re also looking to see the progress that the families have made, so that we can return the children; we’re not going to return a child to a family or a situation where we have removed them from and nothing has changed.”
Greene explained that the project is being carried out mainly by members of Blossom Incorporated as her staff is already burdened with heavy workloads.

Counselling & follow- ups
Each case worker already has a gamut of cases and more is added daily. Apart from reviews and reintegration, guiding adoption and foster care and providing counselling, the workers also do follow- ups. They design care plans that include schedules for counselling and follow-ups.

However, some caregivers remain concerned about reintegration and the provision of adequate counselling and follow-ups with children passing through the care facilities.
“These children are often very aggressive because they feel they have no security and that no one cares about them, no matter how hard we try to help…they have a lot of anger issues and we see a lot of bullying and hostile behaviours,” related Indira Dowlat, administrator of the Prabhu Sharan Home located at Cornelia Ida, WCD. There are 31 kids presently at this facility.

The administrator acknowledged that resources are limited for more frequent counselling, and stressed the involvement of society. While volunteers, law- enforcement officers and others visit and support the kids at her facility, she expressed dissatisfaction with some of the teachers at the kids’ schools.
“I think some of the teachers can pay more emphasis to the children knowing that they come from the Homes and need that extra guidance. Sometimes my kids come home without their work checked for days or sometimes they go to class and don’t do anything,” Dowlat indicated.

She said about 60 percent of her kids are adopted, while some are reunited with families and others placed in foster care. Follow-ups are crucial and since she is unauthorised to do this, Dowlat asks the case workers to check on certain kids and she is grateful for the collaboration.
Some of the older children remain in care facilities until 18, and according to Dowlat, it is sometimes a heartache to get family members or relatives willing to house them.

Education
“We focus heavily on learning and education…Our kids attend the Swami school and while they prepare for CXC exams, we begin looking for far-off family, maybe an aunt or uncle or cousin and we say to them, ‘look, this child is about to write CXC and he/she is likely to get so many subjects and may soon have a job,’ so what we are asking for is a shelter and for them to guide these kids as they exit our Home,” Dowlat outlined. Some of her children are teachers, bank workers, engineers and medex.

Nevertheless, she added that sometimes the children are unprepared too and find it difficult to adjust to new households and environments.
This is the same reason why several young persons who grew up in A Sanctuary Children’s Home on the Soesdyke- Linden Highway returned to live and work at the facility.
Administrator Glennis Smith explained that her facility, sponsored by the Brooklyn Tabernacle, offers a family-structured environment to embrace and comfort the kids, many of whom would have suffered neglect, abuse or mistreatment in their biological families.

“We see some children coming here with really messed-up minds…there was one who didn’t even understand what fatherhood meant or what it is to have a father…so we try to teach them that they are created for a purpose,” Smith related. With this in mind, she, like Dowlat, stressed the need for adequate counselling from well- trained professionals based on the sensitivity of the cases.
She organises lots of field trips for the kids as part of their healing process. Since the Home is located in a remote area, she has established a school nearby, while there is a Georgetown location that houses those attending secondary school in the city.

Younger kids
Smith reported that some of her children have been progressing as one young man is a University of Guyana graduate employed at the Ministry of the Presidency. However, there are a few that haven’t yet had desirable outcomes.
Though her facility mainly caters for teenage children, Smith had to accommodate younger children. She currently houses a two-month-old baby. In recent years, she has observed that smaller kids are ending up in the system and since her facility is not equipped for them, they become housed with older siblings who can help to care for them.

In Berbice, the Anjuman Orphanage is one of the oldest and largest care facilities in operation, currently housing 50 children. A family-owned facility, administrator Abu Mandal said his Home gets significant support from the community.
“We have had visits from the police, the doctors, teachers and even the commander and his wife who would come from time-to-time to talk with the kids…last Christmas, Terry Gajraj had a big party and invited all the kids too,” Mandal detailed. He also has accommodated babies and toddlers, but noted that he has staff that serve as nannies for the younger kids.