There are heightened efforts to stop child abuse

Feb 14, 2012 News

– More child protection officers hired

The high incidence of child abuse has spurred a series of community outreaches by the country’s child protection body. One is to educate parents about alternative ways of disciplining their children.
The Child Care Protection Agency has commenced the community outreach programme to educate adults about their parental responsibilities in hopes of getting them to stop using violence against their children, said Ann Greene, Director, of Child Care Protection Agency.
She said that the agency anticipates that the engagements with parents could reduce child abuse, especially physical abuse, which was the highest of the 3,353 abuse cases reported last year.
The outreaches also serve to build on relationships established and create new ones with religious bodies since every fraction of society needs to get onboard and fight child abuse, Greene stated.
Acknowledging that in recent times some religious leaders were fingered in child molestation cases, she noted that those religious bodies need to clean up their act and outline specific guidelines to manage issues relating to children.
The agency plans to visit every Region and those communities which had the most abuse cases reported. These include West Bank Demerara, Region Three; Region Four; and Berbice, Region Six would be targeted first, Greene stressed.
The body has recruited 18 more Child Protection Officers to assist in decentralizing its services. Greene asserted that the newly appointed Officers, who are Social Works graduates, would be undergoing specialized training from March 1.
Greene said that the training would be for six months and would focus on parental roles and functions, operating in multicultural communities, and laws governing children. After the training, the Officers would be working in various communities and undergoing further training.
She emphasized that it is pertinent that officers understand the cultural dynamics of communities since in some communities, engaging in sexual activities at a young age is acceptable. However, according to the Laws of Guyana, children below age 16 cannot consent to sex.
Greene noted that in those areas the agency would be conducting re-education activities to enlighten children, parents and adults about sex. She said that in some homes talking about sex is taboo while in other homes children are exposed to sexual intercourse.
The agency would also be stepping up its collaboration with the Education Ministry to garner the desired success from its ‘Tell Campaign’. According to Greene, the aim is to increase the number of schools involved in the campaign.
She emphasized that teachers are the frontrunners in noticing abuse since most children’s wake hours are spent in the classroom.

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