IN 2019, UNICEF intends to target a total of 12,000 migrants and residents, including children, in border regions who are likely to be affected in areas such as health and education through the influx of Venezuelan migrants to Guyana.

The initiative forms a part of its Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) 2019 Action plan and will also target child protection, social inclusion, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), social and nutritional goals.

At the annual review of the 2018 joint annual work plan of UNICEF and the Government of Guyana on Thursday at the Marriott Hotel, UNICEF’s Officer in charge of Emergency and Disaster Risk Management, Ian Jones, spoke to the media about these plans.

The overall target includes 4,800 children, with primary focus on Regions 1, 2, 7 and 9 and secondary focus on Regions 3, 4, and 10. They will work in close collaboration with a multi-agency committee spearheaded by Minister of Citizenship, Winston Felix.
Through the interviewing of migrants who have entered Guyana, it was discovered that in Regions 1 and 7, the majority of migrants are families while mostly single adults come through Region 4.

However, UNICEF says that it still has no concrete figure regarding the number of Venezuelans entering the country beyond the official immigration figures. The constraints affecting the availability of these numbers are due to the fact that some migrants may not come through the official entry points or airports.

“A lot of them, especially indigenous Warrau people, are making their own routes by canoe, so it’s only when we actually go to the communities with the Immigration Department, are we actually able to do the registry,” he explained.

Jones said that just last weekend there was a multi-agency field assessment conducted in Region One (Barima-Waini) where they met with migrants in various communities with the immigration department registering who were there. To give an example of how the population is changing in the region, he said that in Region One at Whitewater Primary School, which was built for 170 students, now holds up to 240 students.

“It’s not the case where they can be officially enrolled, but they’ve been accepted into the schools,” he said. “This is one of the reasons why we’re looking to provide the support to the Ministry of Education to build up the resilience for these schools in these border areas.”
Water for migrants

Meanwhile, UNICEF has recently teamed up with the Guyana Water Inc. (GWI) to provide support for water supply and sanitation as an influx of persons in already challenged regions can cause further complications.

This will initially be provided to seven communities in Region One and three communities in Region 7 (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) which are the border regions most affected by the migration.
“We’re not looking at the traditional response and emergencies where you’re handing out kits. We’re looking at building up the roots, the actual capacity in the host communities so that they can be better hosts,” Jones said. “Now the schools, their capacities are being stretched, so we’re not going to just say ‘we’re only going to get furniture for migrant children’ but we’re also looking at furniture and support for the host community children.”
The funding to support these measures comes from UNICEF mainly through government partners and non-government partners such as the Guyana Red Cross Society.

“So far, through the Humanitarian Action for Children through UNICEF and the regional office, we’ve received US$500,000. A big amount of this money will be going through the water and sanitization aspect; the hardware and also through the Ministry of Education for building up the capacities of the schools,” Jones said.

UNICEF is also supporting the Ministry of Social Protection and the Blossoms Inc. NGO to build its capacity in border regions for the setting up of ‘One Stop Centre’ for victims of child sexual abuse.

“We‘re looking to support building up the capacity and then the incidents will be reported through the regular systems,” he said. “What you tend to find is when you build up the capacity for reporting, then you get a spike in the number of cases. So, if you see a big spike in the number of cases, it’s not the issue where now, suddenly, the abuse is increasing, it’s just now there’s a facility to be able to report.”

When it comes to health and nutrition, UNICEF teams up with the Ministry of Public Health and regarding education, apart from the ministry, it teams up with the University of Guyana (UG) and the Catholic Church. The body also collaborates with the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) and MapAction.

UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children sets out UNICEF’s 2019 appeal and its efforts to provide 41 million children with access to safe water, nutrition, education, health and protection in 59 countries across the globe.