…calls for partnership with religious community
THE Ministry of Human Services and Social Security’s Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA), described by Minister Priya Manickchand as “the fulfilling of a dream,” was yesterday formally opened by President Bharrat Jagdeo.
The building, at the corner of Broad and Charles Streets, Charlestown, formerly housed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and was refurbished at a cost of $25M. It will house a programme for preparing children to be productive citizens of Guyana, while providing for their safety and happiness.
President Jagdeo commended Manickchand and the staff of the Human Services Ministry for the enormous work they have been doing to raise awareness on the issue of child abuse in Guyana.
“It takes special people to work in these agencies. If you come into this job without any heart, then you are not going to succeed. The people who have been working here are people who operate with their heads and hearts. That’s the only way we would be effective in the protection of our children,” the president stated.
QUOTE: “I want to pay tribute to those social workers and others who have been working very hard in delivering help to our children…” – President Jagdeo
“I want to pay tribute to those social workers and others who have been working very hard in delivering help to our children,” he continued.
Jagdeo stressed that there will be no success, even as government puts money into the formal CCPA, unless partnerships are forged with other groups in the country. He referred to religious organisations which have a presence in every community in Guyana and can serve as ‘eyes and ears on the ground.’
“So I expect that our efforts will be supplemented by a dedicated focus on forging partnerships with the religious community of Guyana. We will thus extend our reach tremendously and the resources we have available to us can be multiplied many-fold,” he observed.
The president said from time to time he has had cause to criticise some of these organizations, not because he did not believe in God, but largely because “the focus is too much on religion and less on services to people.”
“I’m sure every faith has service to humankind as one of their basic tenets; and so I hope that the religious community will continue to work with us in this regard. I plan to meet with them. I think we need more aggression on this. I do not see enough of an effort.
I don’t see the pastors, the pandits and imams talking about this issue when they do their sermons. They need to focus on this more and more and only then would we have the awareness that would contribute to large scale attention on this issue,” he stated.
Additionally, Mr. Jagdeo noted that oftentimes, the conversations in society are characterised by crudity, loose talk and graphic images. “It happens on the street corners, in the homes, in the schools, on the television, everywhere.”
Government has established a learning channel but the President noted that this was not enough.
“In the society, we have to collectively stand up, every one of us, and say no…we can’t have pedophiles appearing on television and doing talk shows. We can’t have people every day preaching bigotry, racism and exposing our kids to that sort of behaviour when we live in a multi-ethnic society and we want our children to grow up loving each other, recognising that we are Guyanese, regardless of differences.”In brief remarks, Manickchand said the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has delivered on everything it has promised in its 2006 manifesto, including, inter alia, the passage of children’s legislation, the establishment of a foster care programme, improvement in the services provided at the Palms, improvement in efforts to combat trafficking in persons,
improvement in the old age pension system, and the placement of resident, social services officers in regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine.
She pointed out that government has also ensured children’s access to a good education and has even arranged for the provision of uniform vouchers. Only one piece of legislation is currently pending before the select committee in the national assembly, she said, adding that service to the poor has been provided on an unprecedented scale.
The minister recalled the death of young Neesa Gopaul and noted that honour is in order for her and the others who suffer abuse quietly.
Director of CCPA, Ann Green, noted that the CCPA was officially established in June 2009 and to date has responded to over 5000 children who were mistreated. It has also found more than 800 places for children that serve to protect them from harm and abuse.
Furthermore, the CCPA was able to provide ‘psycho-social support’ for over 6,900 children and their families, Green reported.
“Sad to say, in spite of all of our efforts, we were not able to protect all the children that needed protection. The challenges to provide child protection services are numerous. There are large case loads, insufficient staff members, and too many responsibilities that affect overall ability to monitor and perform duties,” she noted.
Additionally, a major challenge is creating community responsibility for child protection. Though there have been increased reports from communities on cases of suspected child abuse, such involvement must be taken to other levels, such as establishing real community partnerships, she said.
Civil society, community groups, faith-based organisations and the media must also come on board.
Source: https://guyanachronicle.com/2011/05/07/president-jagdeo-opens-childcare-and-protection-head-office