Police to assist in removing child beggars from streets

Nov 01, 2020 News

– Child Care says parents will be held accountable

Director of the CPA, Ann Greene

Kaieteur News – As the Child Care and Protection Agency (CPA) takes a further leap into removing child beggars from the streets of Guyana, the Guyana Police Force will be assisting to make the move more effective.
This was stated by the Director of the CPA, Ann Greene, in a telephone interview with Kaieteur News yesterday.
She explained that the police will be responsible for enforcing the law on persons found guilty of enabling child begging.
Recently, the Director has been stressing the importance of having parents/guardians and anyone else who allow child begging, or forces a child to beg on the streets, to be charged to the full extent of the law.
The agency over the months has picked up a number of child beggars from the streets of Georgetown and they are being housed by the agency.
Reports stated that many of them were picked up by traffic lights and other areas around the city.
Greene also stated that having these children on the streets puts them in a vulnerable position. She highlighted that many child beggars find themselves being sexually exploited, among other atrocities.
The Director urged persons to desist from giving these children money because that makes them a part of the exploitation and “not a part of the solution”.
Greene stated that they should desist from giving them “small change” but instead, these persons should work with the CPA to provide them with the assistance that they need by reporting them so their situations can be properly investigated.
“We cannot arrest random persons who hand out money to these children on the streets, but we are pleading with them to be our eyes. The Childcare and Protection Agency cannot do the job alone; wherever there are children wandering report them to the Agency, so we can get them off the streets. Do not feed into the issue,” the Minister had previously stated.
It was also disclosed that the CPA found that many of the children were living in homes where parents were substance abusers and they would usually take the money to fund their alcoholic/drug related tendencies.
Some parents were also found to be deliberately sending their children on the streets to go begging.
Greene stressed that while stopping child begging is of priority, the children also need to be protected.
She has also reported that are at a high risk of catching the COVID-19 virus in light of the current pandemic. Even though the risk was acknowledged, the Director did assure that the agency has enforced measures to curb the potential spread of the virus.
These measures include medical check-ups once they are picked up and the establishment of isolation areas in the event of a child contracting the virus.
No child within the facility has tested positive for COVID-19 to date.

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