GWMO to open Guyana’s first home for TIP survivors

Apr 13, 2014 News

– Expresses gratitude to ‘Mercy Sisters’

By Keeran Danny
The Guyana Women Miners’ Organization (GWMO) in the quest to provide a home and safe environment for survivors of human trafficking has proven that Napoleon Bonaparte was accurate when he said, “Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.”
Armed with a dream and the right collaboration, the organization was able to secure a building to house survivors

GWMO President, Simona Broomes

of Trafficking In Persons (TIP). This accommodation would be the first of its kind in Guyana, specifically targeting persons who were forcefully sexually exploited.
During a recent interview this publication, Simona Broomes, President of GWMO, expressed gratitude to the ‘Mercy Sisters’ for providing the building free of cost. She said that apart from minor works to upgrade the building, the structure is in a relatively good condition.
Broomes reflected that when GWMO was formed in 2012, having a home for TIP survivors was on a list of priority projects. As members of the organization began rescuing women and teenagers from Guyana’s “gold bush’ the need for the home was amplified.
She said that attempts were made in the past to meet the Minister of Housing Irfaan Ali in an attempt to secure an appropriate location to erect the home. In addition, the matter was discussed with the Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Jennifer Webster.
“She (Webster) had identified an area and said we would have worked together and would meet the Minister of Natural Resources and the foreign companies to get funding to put up that home, but nothing materialized,” Broomes added.
However, Broomes is hoping that Government would see the setting up of the shelter as a positive step and provide a subvention to assist with the operations.
According to Broomes, the building donated by the Mercy Sisters is situated in Georgetown. The GWMO and the Mercy Sisters will soon be signing a Memorandum of Understanding which is very clear. Due to the Mercy Sisters’ experience with shelters, the GWMO has requested that a board be formed to manage the facility.
The home has the capacity to accommodate 10 persons comfortably. The structure will include a counseling room, a room for a caretaker, an office, and a kitchen. The idea is to create a home-like atmosphere for the survivors, since many of them have never been exposed to such an environment, she noted.
While the home will focus on the care and needs of teenage victims, adults will not be ignored. The adult survivors will be housed temporarily on another level and would be provided with necessary assistance.
“It’s a wonderful building all that is needed is preparation…I see the facility as giving survivors a second chance, and that is really needed…We want to put the building as a home. That home environment…for instance, if a girl never had a proper home… she was raised from shelter to shelter. We don’t want her coming into another environment feeling as if she is in a shelter,” she said.
Broomes emphasized that one critical room of this building will be the counseling area, since the survivors would need continuous counseling. She noted that survivors of TIP do not have the same challenges as a person who ran away from home, as such, they cannot be placed at any shelter.
“They have to adapt to certain behaviour changes… as in having sex with anybody or multiple partners…They have to smoke marijuana, use drugs, ecstasy, alcohol…They have to have a certain language and wear revealing clothing… The forced sexual exploitation is the worst human rights violation I have ever seen.”
Broomes recalled going into one of the remote communities and listening to the horror story of a teenager, whom she could not have saved from sexual slavery. With tears streaming down her cheeks, Broomes recalled a child weighing probably no more than 120 pounds walking towards her, opening her shirt buttons, only to reveal her scars from being mercilessly brutalized.
Apparently, the teen, who works at a shop, had signaled to Broomes earlier. In a brief casual conversation at a restaurant, the teen told Broomes to meet her behind a washroom. There she revealed her ordeal of being forced into prostitution by her mother’s friend.
“This child told me one night the madam brought a man to her and told her to do whatever the man wants…The man took out four pieces of rope and tied her face down and had anal sex…Even in pain next morning the madam wanted her to clean the shop…Upon seeing the man again the girl ran into the room and put up a fight…This aggravated the man who told her that he would give her a tattoo for life…the man beat her up and took his cigarettes and burned her chest… roasting her nipples…The girl is fearful since the man threatened to kill her mother,” Broomes said.
She said there are many other young girls who have suffered in a similar manner. At a young age horrible things have happened to them, and so a caring home environment is imperative in their reintegration in society.
The collaboration with the Mercy Sisters’ would help to aid some of that reintegration, she said. Besides the provision of the building, the Mercy Sisters have pledged to provide counseling, tutoring and training for survivors. They are also willing to look at other areas of collaboration.