NOC should be shut down immediately – Nicole Cole

May 15, 2014 News

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-wandering laws should be struck out too

By Latoya Giles    
Women and Gender Equality Representative Commission, Nicole Cole, on Tuesday stated that the New Opportunity Corps (NOC) must be “shut down” and a total revamp and sanitation of the system should be conducted forthwith.
Cole told Kaieteur News yesterday that if there is a next institution, social workers need to be at the forefront and lead the cause. Cole told Kaieteur News that persons must desist from referring to children as “troubled” but instead as “children in difficult circumstances”.

According to Cole, another issue that has to be checked out is whether the girls who have alleged “sexual abuse” have been able to be properly checked out since they could have been exposed to sexually transmitted disease.
“The state has to ensure that they are checked out properly.” Cole noted that the allegations from the NOC should not be taken as “without fruit”.  She added that statistics have shown that children are usually violated by a person in position.
Cole further told Kaieteur News that the 2012 breakout and burning of buildings at NOC should have shown that something wasn’t right.
“When faced with challenges, the brain would tell you two things: fight or flight…It’s a natural response and it’s an emotional sense,” Cole explained. “Those children are battling in an environment where adults are always right; they acted out,” she said.
Further, Cole said that the rape culture is something that must be tackled. “We need to get serious; rape is the greatest human rights violation and we must mitigate and stop it,” she told this newspaper.
Another issue which needs to be properly addressed according to Cole is the laws surrounding “wandering”. According to Cole, that law should be struck out immediately since it was established in early slavery.  She said that most children who are sent to the NOC are in that institution because of the wandering laws.
Cole said that has now taken a personal decision to discourage parents who want to send children to the NOC.  She further stressed that people must come out of this “accommodating syndrome”.
Meanwhile Child Protection head, Ms Ann Greene, told Kaieteur News on Tuesday evening that they are actively investigating the matter. She said that they have a mandate to investigate these cases thoroughly and that’s what the agency is doing.
On Friday last, Greene managed to get a High Court order to remove four of the teenage girls from the NOC.
Greene said that the girls will remain in protective custody.  Last Wednesday Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Jennifer Webster, said that she had asked the Child Care and Protection Agency to investigate the alleged sexual molestation of female inmates of the New Opportunity Corps.
Minister Jennifer Webster told Kaieteur News, yesterday, that her Ministry received reports from the parents of the alleged victims on Tuesday.
“I have asked the Director of the Child Care and Protection Agency to conduct an investigation. We are currently conducting an investigation,” Webster said.
Minister Webster’s comments came amid reports that several teenage girls have alleged that a senior government official was among individuals who had sexual intercourse with them at the New Opportunity Corps.
Within the last week several allegations have been emanating from the NOC about caregivers and senior Ministry officials engaged in sexual acts with teenagers. Parents of teenagers have come forward and told harrowing stories about sexual abuse.
One mother told Kaieteur News last Thursday that she was being denied a “one-on-one” visit with her daughter. According to the woman, while visiting her daughter recently, the 16-year-old managed to slip a note in her pocket, which detailed accounts of sexual abuse.
Kaieteur News was told by the woman that her daughter was initially sentenced to two years at the NOC.
“When she get that two years I say okay…she gon go there and learn a trade and get counseling,” the woman said.
A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) Parliamentarian, Christopher Jones, had told Kaieteur News that his Party was in the process of preparing a dossier which would be sent to various international organizations.
“One dossier will be filled with statements of the children and the Government of Guyana’s inaction to deal with these matters,” Jones explained.
Opposition Leader Brig. David Granger had said that his Party had no confidence in the capability of the Ministry of Culture, to administer the New Opportunity Corps.
Granger had proposed that the responsibility of the Corps be transferred to another Ministry or agency that possesses the requisite personnel and skills, and is better prepared to tend to the lives of juveniles sympathetically.
He stressed, “It is evident that a new approach and a new agency are needed to curb the perpetuation of abuses and interpersonal violence which are still occurring in the Corps.
“APNU is concerned that the worst incidence of violence in the entire history of the Corps occurred in August 2012 and involved about one-third of the juveniles in the Corps.”
The Minister, however, has been unable to present the report of the Commission of Inquiry to the National Assembly after over 20 months.

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