Latest update March 21st, 2025 7:03 AM
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Over 40 trained to perform child advocacy tasks
A total of 45 persons have been trained to help abused children get the justice that they deserve.
These include stakeholders from the Guyana Police Force, the Child Care Protection Agency, Guyana’s Mental Health sector, and a few Non-Governmental Organizations such as the Forward Guyana, Child Link, the Ruimveldt Children’s Aid Centre.
Forward Guyana representative Ayo Dalgety-Dean explained that the trained persons will be utilizing the Child Advocacy Centre in Queenstown, Georgetown to conduct forensic interviews and counseling
The lobby of the Child Advocacy Centre located in Queenstown, Georgetown
of abused children.
The centre is no longer referred to as the ‘One stop Centre.’ “We’re moving away from that name,” Dalgety Dean stressed.
The woman told Kaieteur News that the trainings which concluded yesterday were done in the areas of Forensic Interviewing, which is primarily for those conducting the interviews with the abused children, and the Multi-disciplinary Team Response, which targets the persons who will be listening in on the interview. They would be the people responsible for proving that the child is innocent.
The Centre was established with the aim of shortening the very lengthy process currently being followed by those seeking justice for abused children.
Kaieteur News understands that Guyana is the first country in the Caribbean and South America to undertake the opening of such a facility and that it is the first of several to be opened.
In 2013, an agreement was signed by Director of the Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA), Ann Greene; Chantalle Haynes and Dalgety-Dean of Forward Guyana; Parliamentarian and member of the Board of Directors for Child Link Incorporated, Reverend Kwame Gilbert; and Representative of UNICEF, Marianne Flach.
According to Ms. Greene, the centre is expected to bring together partners in child protection services and child advocacy for a coordinated response to better serve abused children and their families.
“It is a child-focused, facility-based programme, in which representatives from many disciplines, including law enforcement, child protection, prosecution, mental health, medical and victim advocacy, work together to conduct interviews and make team decisions about investigation, treatment, management, and prosecution of child abuse cases.”
Greene said that the interviews would also be recorded and could be used as evidence in cases against the perpetrators.
It was noted that when the child is being interviewed in one room, the police, child care officers, welfare officers and other partners can stay in another room taking notes and even request that the interviewer ask pertinent questions that would benefit the investigations, and thus prosecution.
The video and audio recording can further be used as evidence in court; the child may never have to see their attacker again, let alone speak of them.
The Director noted that this would allow for the victims to heal, instead of having to repeat their horrific experiences to various stakeholders.
A Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) was signed by the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security for the establishment of the Centre, however, to date, the actual operation of it is pending legal procedures.
Ms. Greene had emphasized that the Child Advocacy Centre would be a new tool in the battle of preventing crimes committed against children.
She had explained that too many times children are asked to repeat the details of crimes committed against them to various officers as the investigative and child recovery process occurs.
This, she said, proved adverse for the investigative process, the child’s recovery process, and even the prosecution of the case.
It was explained that there are plans to have similar centres established in the various communities across the country.
To this end, community leaders, and other village heads will also be getting attention, and may even be trained in relation to the functioning of these centres.
“…Again, it is the essential partnership that we are looking for. It is a multi-disciplinary approach and everyone has to be sensitized to play their part,” Greene told Kaieteur News.
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