Latest update November 21st, 2024 1:00 AM
Young Mother Wants Her Baby Back
Shackeera Sadenddin met a man in Tuschen in June 2007 and began a relationship that resulted in a baby. Assad Hassan was born in March 2009. At the time, Shackeera was 18 years old; Hassan was ten years her senior.
Shackeera Sadenddin
They shared a home at Lot 7 Section ‘A’ Vergenoegen, West Coast Demerara. According to the young woman, ever since December 2007 their relationship began to deteriorate. It began with a short pants she wore at a Christmas Party. She said that it was her common law husband who bought the pants and had no objections to her wearing it that night.
However, as the night grew older the situation changed. As they drove their way home he began to beat her. He took her to his sister’s home in Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo where the beatings continued. In spite of the sister’s pleadings the beatings went on into the night. She was left there to sleep off her wounds.
This ill treatment continued into 2008, becoming worse as each month went by. The pattern grew even worse during her pregnancy when she was beaten with any weapon that was near at hand. These included iron bars, wood, broken glass and belts. One night he beat her so bad and left her with a cut nose and about $4,000, telling her to go to a doctor.
When asked if any of the abuse was reported to the police, Shackeera admits that out of love for her family she did not report any of these. She also accuses the father of her baby of attempting to rape one of her cousins and issuing death threats.
Matters came to an end this past Christmas when about 12:30am the verbal abuse started. This was after a party at the home. Shackeera went on to explain that he (the baby’s father) decided that she was not fit to be a mother and that she must leave the home.
Even moving from one location to another in the compound did not change matters, but only worsened it. Shackeera decided that in the best interest of her life was to leave, and she spent the night at Parika with a relative.
Next morning, she was informed by her mother that a Missing Person report had been posted by the baby’s father. She presented herself at the Leonora Police Station and was questioned by a rank there. When asked about the baby, Shackeera said that as a result of death threats from the father she had no choice but to consent to the man keeping the infant. Shackeera insists that the father has the capacity to carry out these threats.
She next went to the Ministry of Human Services where she was issued with a document to give to a Ms. Boyce, Welfare Officer Region Three.
Ms. Boyce in turn gave her another document to take to the Leonora Police Station. When this document was accepted by the police they tried to get in touch with the father via cell phone. According to Shackeera, the father told the police that he had no intention of reporting himself and that they could do whatever they want. Apparently, the father himself visited the very Ministry and had taken the child to get medical examination at the Woodlands Hospital.
Later in the day, Shackeera, in the company of three ranks, went to the home of Azad Hassan where she was allowed to pack her baby’s belongings into a bag. This she placed into the police vehicle. She returned to the house and picked up the baby and was walking past the father who was at the time in conversation with the ranks. Then she heard her name called and when she turned it was the senior rank, a commander Hailey, who called her.
As she turned toward him she was instructed by the commander to hand the child over to the father. Though ignorant of the law, she protested, but confessed she had no choice but to comply.
Shackeera says her son, only nine months old, is a nursing child and she wants to have him so that she could satisfy his nutritional needs. She also believes that the father who was deported from the USA on charges of spousal abuse wants to deprive her perpetually from her son.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
Bureaucracy gone bananas!
…Peeping Tom kaieteur News- Every morning, the government wakes up, stretches its arms, and spends one billion dollars... more
Rising Gun Crimes in the Caribbean: Urgent Action required by all
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News – There is an alarming surge in gun-related violence, particularly among younger... more
Weekend Cartoon
