Human Services Ministry launches its ‘914’ emergency hotline

Dec 12, 2020 News

Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Vindhya Persaud at the launch of the ‘914’ emergency hotline.

Kaieteur News – Yesterday, the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security concluded its 16 days of activism against gender-based violence in a ceremony which saw the launching of its‘914’ Toll Free emergency number, as part of the measures for promoting reporting, prevention and response services to cases of violence. The launch was held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
This initiative is in partnership with the United Nations Children Fund (UNCIF); Digicel Guyana; Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company; and the Telecommunications Agency. The ‘914’ emergency hotline number would seek to integrate the services available at both the Domestic Violence Units and the Childcare and Protection Agency.
Kaieteur News previously reported that the ‘914’ emergency hotline would link survivors to agencies, advocacy programmes, referral pathways, microenterprise industries, public-private skills employment database matching and offer immediate help to extricate them from violent situations. Through the Survivors Advocacy Programme, nine social workers were trained to offer emotional support and crisis counselling to victims of domestic and sexual violence and act on the victim’s behalf when necessary.
According to a statement from the Ministry, it annually responds to “over 3,000 cases of abuse and it is expected that access to a toll-free hotline would be an instrumental solution towards ensuring availability of key and essential services especially for children and adolescents – and in some cases, this service can and will save lives!” The Ministry noted that the hotline would allow both children and adults to tell their stories in a safe and confidential manner.

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