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Civil society body mulls strategy to engage Govt. on child protection
In light of the brutal rape/murder of Berbice teen Leonard Archibald, the National Coordinating Coalition (NCC), a leading civil society body, recently met to strategize on how to better engage government on child protection issues.
Archibald, 13, formerly of Overwinning Primary School, went missing on September 17, 2017 after leaving his brother’s Village, East Canje Berbice home with his sisters to attend a birthday party.
His decomposing body was fished out of the Berbice River days after.
Hilary Edwards and Obediah Christopher, who have been both charged with the teen’s murder, allegedly confessed to sodomizing him before dumping his body along with the bicycle the lad was riding over board.
The NCC, which comprises 34 members from seven of the 10 Administrative Regions, is calling for affirmative action dealing with issues of neglect and abuse to be taken by key government agencies– the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Social Protection, and Ministry of Public Security.
According to the NCC, action must address the enforcement of Child Protection policies and to rectify the nonfunctioning aspect of inter-agency coordination that leads to breakdown in communication and ultimately poor responses to incidence of neglect and abuse.
“Therefore the NCC proposes that civil society can be socially contracted to collaboratively implement other programmes similar to the Ministry of Education and Childlink’s ‘TELL SCHEME”, which creates awareness for children on how to communicate being touched inappropriately and to provide training to relevant officers on how to respond and provide suitable support to families and victims of cases of child abuse and neglect,’ the NCC stated.
In addition, the NCC is also advocating that the Ministry of Education gives permission for NGOs’ to work in schools to provide counselling on child rights and abuse awareness.
“It should be recognised that NGOs have for many years been playing an integral part in their communities addressing social issues with limited resources and yet have had many successes.”
The NCC deems it critical to continue the dialogue on this issue; as too often horrifying stories like that of little Leonard come to light and fade away without any aggressive action being taken to address or prevent similar occurrences.
Meanwhile, last month, the Ministry of Public Health, through Senior Psychologist Balagun Osunbiyi, announced that counselling will be provided to family members of the murdered teen.
MURDERED: Leonard Archibald
MURDER ACCUSED: Hillary Edwards, 29 and Obediah Christopher, 19
“As a result of the obvious trauma, the Public Health Ministry will be offering counselling for the family which will include the older children and the father, Walter Archibald, who is a Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) employee and also a part-time fisherman,” Osunbiyi said.
Osunbiyi revealed that the counselling package will include psycho-social and problem-solving skills, coping and refusal. It was also noted that prior to Archibald’s death, residents were silent about sexual assaults in the village.
According to Osunbiyi, villagers disclosed that while there are several known paedophiles roaming the Brothers, East Bank Berbice community, and one of the individuals who was charged was “the worst” of the lot. The villagers have also revealed that this individual is believed to have sexually molested a dozen other young men in the community.
As a consequence of this revelation, the Ministry of Public Health will also be undertaking sustained community-sensitization programmes to help familiarize residents with techniques to spot both perpetrators and victims of sexual assaults.”
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Oswald Pitt was dispatched to Berbice to investigate reports of numerous sexual attacks on other young men. ASP Pitt was also tasked with investigating reports that ranks failed to act on the complaints that came to them, the Guyana Police Force said.
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