– CPA Director Ann Green

By Gabriella Chapman

THE Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA) is working diligently to eradicate teenage pregnancy in Guyana, said agency Director Ann Green, on Friday.

In 2016, the Teen Pregnancy Prevention and Empowerment Initiative was launched and has since been rolled out in the 10 administrative regions.

The programme focuses on sensitising girls on making the right choices on intimate relations, as opposed to telling them to abstain.

“Our programme is focused on empowering young people. No more can we tell them practise abstinence. I mean that’s what they should do, but most young people do not adhere to that advice. So what we do is make available to them, the information that will help them make the right choices when it comes to sex. We still encourage them not to get involved in sexual activities too early, as they could become pregnant,but even if they think they still want to do it, they have enough information to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy and STDs,” the CPA director said.

The programme is designed to help girls in their personal growth and development and help boys who are sexually active.

After completion of the programme, the CPA follows the participants for 12 years to see if they are making the right choices.

Green emphasised that the programme will be ongoing until there is a significant decline in teenage pregnancy.

In fact, she told the Guyana Chronicle that the programme is currently being done in Kwakwani and another is in its preparation phase for Yarrowkabra and another in Essequibo.

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
In her conversation with this newspaper, Green also made mention of the agency’s efforts in addressing child sexual abuse, since a lot of reported teen pregnancy cases resulted from child sexual abuse.

She stated that for 2018, the agency had 481 reported cases of child sexual abuse across Guyana and more has to be done to tackle this issue, as it is the most devastating experience for a child to endure.

“Our next target is child sexual abuse. The number of cases are alarmingly high and sexual abuse is a serious abuse; it is devastating for a child and it robs them of the person they would have become. So the week of September 23, Child Protection Week, we’re hoping to deal with this whole question of child sexual abuse. We are committed to doing a rally on breaking the silence on child sexual abuse. There still is a whole lot of silence. The region with the highest report is Region 10, followed by Region Seven. So we are working diligently towards reducing this whole question of sexual abuse,” Green said.

She added: “We’re trying to bridge this gap between culture and law. The laws of the land say a child can give consent for sex at the age of 16, but in some hinterland communities, there’s a high tolerance level for underage sexual activity. But it’s not right, the law says it’s not. Bridging the gap, we are doing that through education and re-education, so persons can understand that early sexual activity is damaging for a child.”

CHILD ABUSE REGISTRY
During Child Protection Week this month, the CPA will be launching a Child Abuse Registry and Sexual Offences Registry to publicise and expose the perpetrators of sexual abuse.
Green said these registries will provide information such as the type of abuse, the person’s age, their name, where they’re from and their photograph, since persons may have same names.

“When we set up this database, we can do drafts and look and see where the abusers are, we can pull up the map and see where they are and persons can run the database before employing someone,” she shared.

This, she hopes, will aid in reducing cases of this nature.

PARENTING PROGRAMMES
In addition, the CPA is currently executing parenting programmes throughout the regions.
“Building the capacity of parents is what we need to focus on as well. They need assistance. Time has long passed for us to be blaming parents. We gotta help them.

We realised that they need the capacity to be built. We’re helping them to build the capacity for the parenting role. So we’re doing programmes at the community level for the parents,” she stated.

The CPA is also working to get communities to take responsibility for the safety of children.
“The average Guyanese thinks it’s Ann Greene and the Child Protection Agency’s responsibility to protect children. Though that may be true, they fail to realise that they play a critical role in the protection as well. I run the agency, but every adult is a child protector. Every community has a responsibility of keeping their children safe. People don’t understand that child protection starts with the family, the extended family, the community then the organisations. Everyone has a role,” Ann Green emphasised.

She urged every person in every community to be vigilant and play their role in child protection.