THE national consultation convened by President, Dr Irfaan Ali has sent a clear message that the safety and mental health of our children are national priorities and it will be treated as such.
For this goal, he gathered the government, the judiciary, the Speaker of the National Assembly, constitutional commissions, law enforcement and civil society in one room.
The consultation’s central conclusion deserves our full support. No single institution can solve this problem alone.
The pressures weighing on young Guyanese are wide ranging, and they reach into the home, the classroom, the street and the screen in a child’s hand.
A response that fixes one of these and ignores the others would be a half-measure, and our children cannot afford half-measures. The insistence that parents, government, schools, social and religious organisations, law enforcement and the courts must all pull in the same direction is exactly right.
The decision to place the attorney general at the head of a broad-based task force is equally sensible. A national plan needs legal expertise, institutional authority and the ability to coordinate across ministries and agencies.
Giving the task force a mandate to design a comprehensive framework, rather than a collection of disconnected programmes, shows a seriousness of purpose that this issue has long deserved.
The measures identified are practical and well chosen. Public awareness and education will help families recognise warning signs early. Support for parents acknowledges that those raising children need help and guidance, not blame.
Activities in schools, mentoring and healthy recreation give young people constructive places to channel their energies and ambitions, and psychosocial support ensures that a child in distress has somewhere to turn before a crisis becomes a tragedy.
Each of these investments protects a young life and strengthens the society that life will one day help to build.
The consultation was also willing to confront harder questions. Regulating children’s exposure to music, social media and other influences will not be simple, and it will rightly spark debate about freedom, parental authority and the role of the state.
But a country that takes child protection seriously cannot look away from the environments in which its children are growing up.
The same candor applies to the proposals to revise outdated laws, review the law-enforcement approach and adjust the administration of justice. Systems built for another era must be updated to protect children in this one.
The real test, of course, lies ahead. A plan on paper means nothing if it does not reach the child in the village, the teenager in the crowded city neighbourhood or the family that does not know where to ask for help.
The task force must move with urgency, set clear timelines and report openly on its progress. Citizens, for their part, should see this as a call to action, not a spectator event.
Still, there is real reason for optimism. A government that listens widely, an assembly of institutions willing to share responsibility and a leadership that describes children as the nation’s most precious assets together make a powerful foundation.
Guyana is on the cusp of significant economic transformation, but no oil barrel, highway or skyscraper will ever matter as much as a generation of children who feel safe, supported and hopeful about their futures.
The president has convened the nation. Now the nation must answer. Every parent, teacher, pastor, officer, judge and neighbour has a part to play. If we play it well, this moment will be remembered as the one when Guyana chose to put its children first.