Abused mother, children living in appalling conditions

May 14, 2012 News

A West Berbice mother and her small children are living under appalling and insanitary conditions, with the woman alleging that constant physical abuse by her unemployed spouse is adding to her misery.

A child nursing her baby sister on the floor

The woman was out when Kaieteur News visited the Number 4 Village, West Berbice home last Friday, having reportedly visited the Blairmont Police Station to make a complaint against her husband.
The four children were alone in the one-flat home and the stench was unbearable. The eldest child, about five, was seen nursing her baby sister on the floor, while the other two boys were crying because they were hungry. A neighbour, who took this newspaper on the tour of the house, poured something that appeared to be porridge from a very dirty pot into a butter dish for one of the boys.
The house had no clean or running water.
The children appear ill and malnourished as well as traumatised. Their mother eventually turned up late in the afternoon, but spent most of the time hiding in at her neighbour’s shop, since her spouse had allegedly beaten her again.
She related that her husband is renting the one- flat building. She admitted the conditions in the home are insanitary and does not think it is safe, but the woman said she cannot do any better. “He does beat me and threaten me to kill me and sleep with cutlass on the bed.”
Her husband is unemployed and she cleans and washes for persons in the area to provide for her children. None of the children attend school.
According to the woman, she made several reports to both the Blairmont and Fort Wellington Police Stations and although her husband was once locked up, he was released the next day.