IN 2019, over 30 children were reintegrated with their families after the Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA) deemed that both the child and families were ready for the same.
According to ChildLink, a not-for-profit organisation working for the well-being of children, it is normal for such a process to take several months before the child is reunited with his or her family. “The process includes locating the families and preparation for the reintegration of their child which also includes ensuring that the perpetrator is no longer living in the same home and that the child is no longer at risk,” the organisation stated on Friday.

ChildLink notified the public that, through the Recovery Safeguarding and Reintegration (RSR) initiative supported by the European Delegation and the British High Commission, the CPA is bolstered to strengthen its reintegration system so that children can grow up where they belong – with their families.

Meanwhile, the organisation is doing its part by working in support of the national child-protection system and with grassroots partners in Regions Three, Four and Five for the reintegration of children from orphanages back to family-based care.
“The CPA has been increasingly working with non-governmental organisations to build partnerships to facilitate a child-friendly and efficient child protection system and to conduct surveys and research that will highlight the key issues around safeguarding children from all forms of abuse,” ChildLink stated.

From the organisation’s 2016 Nature and Extent of Institutionalisation of Children in Guyana survey, it was highlighted that girls aged 13-15 are vulnerable to sexual abuse. It was also found that their abuse was the reason for their separation from their family and their communities and their placement in orphanages for their protection. However, ChildLink urges: “Protecting children requires everyone in your family and everyone in your neighbourhood. This is a change we need to see in more families and communities so that children are not growing up in orphanages.”

The NGO spoke strongly against child punishment in the form of beating but promoted discipline through explaining and teaching which help children to develop appropriate behaviour and better communication with their parents.

Detailing one success story, the NGO told of a nine-year-old girl who was sexually abused by her stepfather and initially struggled with the decision to tell her mother.

After running from another encounter with her stepfather, to a neighbour one night, the girl’s mother took her to the police and the CPA and she was eventually placed in an orphanage while her stepfather remained at home. “She had done nothing wrong but she felt she was being punished. Jessie spent six years of her childhood in institutional care; an orphanage – separated from families and childhood friends while struggling to cope with the traumatic experience of repeated sexual abuse and betrayal of her mother,” the organisation explained.

Soon, the young girl received counselling while in the orphanage from the CPA counsellor which initiated the healing process and her mother was referred to parenting skills education sessions facilitated by ChildLink to prepare her for the reintegration.

“These activities form part of the CPA and ChildLink’s collaboration under the RSR initiative to reintegrate children to family-based care where they can grow up in loving and caring families. Jessie and her mother have a better relationship today,” ChildLink stated. Report child abuse by calling the CPA on 227-0979, the closest Police station or ChildLink on 233-3500 or email: admin@childlinkgy.org.