Child Protection must be everybody’s business – CPA Head

Sep 27, 2015 News

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By Sunita Samaroo

With statistics that show every day at least one child is grappling to cope with various social struggles, child care experts are emphasizing that the safety and welfare of children must be everybody’s business.

Being at the helm of the Child Care and Protection Agency (CPA), career Social Worker Ann Greene says no day goes by without her receiving a report of a young child being abused, neglected or mistreated in some way.

The “horror stories,” as she calls them, have been piling up but Greene believes the numbers would depreciate if child protection was seen as a collective responsibility.

While the agency has been at the forefront of the fight to protect and promote the rights of children, Greene said the notion that they are sole caretakers of children must be removed. As she spoke to Kaieteur News, the CPA Head was at pains to emphasize that children ought to feel safe and that society as a whole must step up.

“Protection of children is shared responsibility; every adult member of society has a responsibility to protect a child. It is not something we can do alone,” the CPA Director stressed.

Family, she said, is the starting point of this but sadly in most of the reports of child abuse she receives family members are the perpetrators. “The hurt is in the home but it should not be. Your home should be safe,” said Greene.

There has been a 65 percent increase in the number of reported cases of sexual offences from January to the end of August as compared to the same period last year. In fact, the statistics by the CPA shows there has been a whopping 334 reported cases of child molestation from January to July.

Greene explained to this publication that reports have shown that most of the young victims are between the ages of 14 and 18 years old and of the 334 reported cases of sexual abuse, 286 of them are females and 48 are boys.

All of these cases, recorded by the Agency, have been forwarded to the Guyana Police Force.

The problem, as highlighted by Greene, is that dysfunctional families are rampant across board and the group has been putting children at risk in numerous ways. According to her, the problems encountered in families usually stem from four basic factors: substance abuse, mental health issues, domestic abuse and poverty.

Once present in families, they have detrimental effects on the overall development of children, Greene explained.

As she is confronted with countless cases of substance abuse, Greene told this newspaper that “Alcohol is a serious substance and it has destroyed a lot of families. It is creating vulnerability for children.”

Speaking on the mental health component, the CPA Head indicated that good mental health would mean that members of families are dealing well with life stressors and maintaining good balance but this is not always the case.

In reality, members of the family may be grappling to cope with various burdens, for instance hunger created by inadequate food supplies in households.

“What we have found is a lot of parents can’t deal with the stressors of life and as a result it filters down to the children. They are the ones being neglect as parents may ‘run off’ and leave them,” said the CPA Head.

Greene spoke too of the different types of abuse suffered in families, particularly those which are less evident like emotional abuse. The social worker said the Agency has come face-to-face with instances where young mothers struggle to cope with abuse in their relationships and they leave their children behind.

This, Greene explained, at times lead to the verbal and emotional abuse that was meted out by the father being turned to the children, often damaging them psychologically. She said, in cases, these pains are reflected negatively in children’s behaviour later in life.

She underscored that poverty is another factor which families struggle to cope with and it often times leave children in vulnerable positions.

Greene said too that the Agency does not clamp down on poverty but would often face criticisms by those who feel they are being harsh on families. “We are making decisions to save children,” the CPA Head said, adding that they work to improve families, in the best interest of the children.

Neglect too was underscored as very painful for children and it has serious long-term effects, oftentimes creating a cycle of abuse. The zero to three years stage in a child’s life is very important, highlighted Greene.

“Children have secret pain of abandonment and rejection and then they react. If we don’t fix it now, they take it into adulthood,” said Greene.

“Hurt people, hurt people. The reality is people deal from their point of pain,” the child care expert said. To stop the cycle of pain, Greene said focus must be given to strengthening families.

Child Protection Week activities are observed in at least 120 countries worldwide. In Guyana, this year it was carried out from September 20 to 26, aiming to raise the level of awareness on issues relating to children, including child abuse with hopes of propelling individuals, families and groups into action to keep children safe.

Child Protection Week is a week set aside annually as a national project with the main purpose of increasing common awareness and understanding of the importance of primary prevention to reduce child abuse and neglect in society by instilling the core principle that child protection is everyone’s business.

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