UNKNOWN intruders, sometime between Monday evening and Tuesday morning, broke into the office of ChildLinK, a local Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) which works towards protecting children from violence and abuse and carted off a number of items.
In a release, ChildLinK said its staff arrived at their 47 Croal Street and Austin Place office at approximately 08:00 hrs Tuesday, only to discover two windows on the first floor on the western side of the building were opened. Upon entering the building, the staff discovered that several items of technical equipment critical to the daily operations of the NGO were missing.

The police were contacted and ranks from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) responded promptly and combed the building for prints. A report was made to the Alberttown Police Station and their investigation is currently ongoing. Anyone with knowledge of the break-in is asked to submit a statement to the Alberttown Police Station or call ChildLinK on telephone numbers 231 7174 or 227 2023.
Only recently, Ambassador Jernej Videti?, Head of Delegation of the European Union to Guyana and Ms. Omattie Madray, managing-director of ChildLink, signed a grant contract to implement a project titled “Recovery, Safeguarding and Reintegration”. The objective of the project is the adoption of international guidelines and policies for children’s reintegration in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child [UNCRC] for 749 children living in institutions and 2500 children at risk of institutional care in Guyana.

The grant involves the support of a maximum of GYD $87.7 Million and will be funded from the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) 2017 country allocation for Guyana. The project will run for the next 30 months. ChildLinK has been working collaboratively with the Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA) for the past 10 years and has launched the Child Rights Alliance (CRA) with funding from the European Union to strengthen child-protection services to prevent abuse and increase care of children across Guyana. The Recovery, Safeguarding and Reintegration (RSR) initiative extends protection services and places emphasis on institutional strengthening of the CPA, children’s institutions and civil society organisations (CSOs) to improve reintegration services for 749 children living in institutions across Guyana. This is a fundamental right of children in line with the UNCRC, Art. 9 & 18, which clearly state that children have a right to live with their parents or a safe family.

In brief remarks during the signing, Ambassador Videti? highlighted that, “Human Rights are one of the core values of the European Union and its member states. The European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) provides the possibility to support civil society projects in this area, also in Guyana. The rights of vulnerable groups, especially children are particularly important in this regard and this fifth ChildLinK proposal has convinced us again.”

ChildLinK Inc was established in the year 2009 and its mandate is to work with its partners towards a Guyanese society, where every child has the right to grow up in a safe and secure family and community. ChildLinK Inc had previously received four grants totalling over GYD 200 Million, all funded from the aforementioned EIDHR initiative. The European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) is a self-standing financing instrument that provides assistance for the promotion of democracy and human rights worldwide and specifically aims at assisting civil society to become an effective force for political reform and defence of human rights.