WHEN two child protection officers are seen dragging a young girl across a city bus park by her hair and arms, it does not look good for the agency for which they work. In fact, it is appalling and begs the question whether they understood the purpose of their jobs.
And even though the two officers in question, attached to the Child Protection Agency (CPA), have since been suspended, their action has sparked outrage among citizens and politicians and brought the Agency under intense scrutiny.
The CPA was already facing criticism for its handling of two matters involving teen mothers. According to the post-mortem report, the 14-year-old died of heart failure and anaemia, while the 15-year-old mother of an 18-month-old baby was hospitalised after being viciously stabbed by the father of the child.
The Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, responsible for the CPA, faces allegations of a failed child protection system, with high turnover in experienced staff, neglect of vulnerable citizens and unprofessional staff conduct.
While the Ministry has defended its work, the Minister, Vindhya Persaud, has acknowledged weaknesses in the system. The Ministry has launched an investigation into the death of the 14-year-old mother, while a tribunal has been set up to probe the actions of Agency officers.
The incident where the two CPA officers were caught on video dragging the child occurred during a crackdown on truant schoolchildren. In conjunction with the Guyana Police Force (GPF), the CPA last month launched a campaign to apprehend schoolchildren found loitering, particularly at the city’s bus parks, during school hours.
A laudable initiative aimed at safeguarding young people and encouraging regular attendance at school, the operation was marred by the actions of these two officers and has brought into question the functioning of the Human Services Ministry and its personnel training.
The outcry surrounds the fact that employees of an agency tasked with protecting children are seen being abusive to a child, with total disregard for many who witnessed their actions and voiced concern whether the girl was being uncooperative or not, does not excuse the method the officers chose to remove her from the scene.
Their training is supposed to equip them with strategies for dealing with difficult situations and individuals.
According to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), “Child Protection is the prevention of and response to exploitation, abuse, neglect, harmful practices and violence against children”.
It is enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, is universal, and intended for children everywhere, regardless of socioeconomic bracket or country status. UNICEF, now known simply as the UN Children’s Fund, reveals that each year over one billion children experience violence, with an estimated cost of US$7 billion annually. Proper and effective childcare would no doubt reduce this figure significantly.
And in an article on ‘Training Child Care Workers: Three Essentials’, a professional trainer makes the point that training is not “like some magic elixir” solving all the problems a childcare worker may encounter.
After presenting scenarios in which a childcare worker may become disillusioned, cynical or emotionally exhausted, the expert states emphatically,”…all training programs for childcare workers (whether provided before or during employment) must in some fashion take such issues into account and indeed offer more than short-term, quick fix solutions for them”.
The writer, who is “involved every day in the training of childcare workers”, identifies the three essential themes as “self-exploration and personal growth; creation of the powerful environment and routine use of support systems”.
In light of the recent incident involving our local child protection officers, it is clearly advisable that these three themes be incorporated into any child care programme and in particular ‘self-motivation and growth’. For as the expert says, “…the effectiveness of the childcare worker is in the end determined by a rather internal reality: i.e. who he or she is as a person.”
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.
