There are more questions than answers surrounding the Mahdia tragedy

Jun 01, 2023 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – It is with deep sadness and overwhelming shock that we write to offer our condolences to the grieving families who lost beloved children and whose children were injured and hospitalized. All the Mahdia Secondary School students are affected and traumatised. All the communities that are home to the students are grieving. Our country, Guyana, continues to mourn and express our collective grief and shock.

We join hearts and hands with the Patamuna people and Indigenous Peoples in all regions – especially those most directly affected in Karisparu, Micobie Mahdia, Campbelltown, El Pasoand Chenapou.  We stand in full solidarity with Chenapou and their righteous protest and demands for answers and support in their time of grief.

We applaud the UG statement and its most appropriate vigil, which was also wonderfully made available by Zoom for those who could not be physically present.

We recognise the prompt and necessary actions taken by the President and the Administration’s support efforts.

There are more questions than answers surrounding this tragedy and its accountability.

For decades and over successive governments, there have been criticisms and calls for improved designs and modern infrastructure standards for schools and dormitories in these hinterland areas. There currently exists an appalling lack of such standard safety measures built into the design and construction of these dormitories everywhere. In the Mahdia dorm, there was no fire escape structure, no fire extinguishers, no smoke alarms or water sprinklers, and no precautionary requirement specifying the use of fire retardant materials in construction. Additionally and bizarrely, there were the extremely dangerous, highly flammable and toxic PVC plastic tiles installed as the ceiling. This plastic ceiling coupled with the zinc roof above it would together drive an intense, furnace-like heat. While the windows were barred, it was said the doors were not – but that the keys were a problem. Significantly, it is also reported that fire drills were not at all carried out as a regular safety precaution feature of dormitory management. By all accounts, this was a disaster waiting to happen – and that ought to have been prevented!

President Ali is calling for a COI into the Mahdia fire: All well and good. But we suggest that an independent investigation be done to ascertain the quality and safety of ALL of the dorms and schools in the interior.

Equally disastrous is the utter lack of full time professional services and trained personnel employed at the dorms attached to Secondary Schools in the interior. Children from the ages of 12 to 17 are housed in these neglected institutions. In their need for basic secondary education, these children must leave the security, safety, love, comfort and support of their families and communities and move away to distant places. These institutions employ no trained psychosocial professionals, no guidance counselors. or social workers who are trained in the care and support of adolescents. The “dorm mothers” and “dorm fathers” or “matrons”or “caretakers” employed are, no doubt, good community people, trying their best – but who are, generally, without the skill-sets, training and experience to professionally support the students under their care. This is a stupendous failing on the part of relevant authorities and administrations. It is well known that many adults prey on and groom these vulnerable teenagers with impunity, often resulting in inappropriate relationships and high levels of teenage pregnancies. This bad situation has been occurring for years and yet, it is not effectively addressed and no consistent or meaningful preventive actions have been put in place.

It is therefore with utter horror and shock that we learned from a “News Room” report on May 28that …“Police have received legal advice to charge the 15-year-old girl who allegedly set the female dormitory of the Mahdia Secondary School on fire with 19 counts of murder…”We now know that this instruction came directly from the DPP. Yet, this is a child in obvious need of psychological help, mental health counselling, guidance and appropriate discipline aimed at helping her take responsibility and to understand correction and self-correction. What on earth is to be gained by branding this misguided child a murderer? We call on DPP to lift these unreasonable charges on a child. We are legally advised that the charge of arson is more lawful at this juncture. And that the most immediate action is fore her to receive the required psycho-social trauma counseling.

There are many factors and circumstances that are root causes of this tragedy and which, together, share equal blame. There are many hard lessons to be learned from this tragedy.

Our recommendations include:

1. Uphold SDG 4: “Invest in Quality Education”. Build Secondary Schools in villages and clustered local communities so that children can go to school and come home daily, after class, to their families like school children do in Georgetown and on the coast.
2. Reinstitute and revitalize “Primary Tops” in the schools in the communities, so that the young 11, 12 and 13 year olds do not have to be wrested away from their families at these young ages.
3. Institute daily School Bus or School Boat services where Secondary Schools exist that are easily accessible by road or river – and in relatively close proximity to villages and communities.
4. Implement psychological therapy and trauma counselling. This situation will not be a quick fix and we urge that this therapy continue for as long as it takes, as we acknowledge all the efforts being made toward this by the State and from the University of Guyana specialized units and the long-term strategies being developed by the APA.
5. Implement the training of community-based counsellors on a consistent and long-term basis using the techniques, methods, approaches and materials successfully used and produced by NGOs who are equipped and experienced in delivering these professional services and training programmes – such as Help & Shelter, Blossom, Red Thread, ChildLink and others.
6. The Patamuna people and Region 8 residents must also be given all the necessary support and continuous training in trauma counselling for it to be sustainable. The community must be integrally involved in decisions, oversight and support of these efforts.
7. Immediately carry out an independent, andcomprehensive survey of all dormitories and schools in the hinterland and ALL residential institutions in Guyana that must be led by professional civil engineers, and have their findings publicly disclosed and their recommendations expeditiously implemented.
8. Ban all PVC tiles used for ceilings or anywhere else in these buildings and immediately replace any other such ceilings in schools and dorms.
9. Stop awarding construction contracts for sub-standard designs and stop approving sub-standard works, which do not have fully modernized safety and security measures and mechanisms in place. Employ independent, professionally competent monitors to review all designs, contracts/contractors and construction.
10. Immediately lift the murder charges brought against the teenage girl in question and placeher in the professional care of trained and professional psychologists, mental healthcounsellors and ensure that she is not isolated from family members who care for her and who themselves are benefitting from professional trauma counselling.

As we mourn as a nation, this is also a time for all of us in Guyana to pause, reflect and to do all within our power to ensure such a terrible tragedy never happens again. As we do this, let us ensure, that as a nation, we participate as leaders, individuals, families, communities and civil society organizations to build resilient communities where every child is valued, loved and protected.

We close by joining with all Guyana across race, class, religion, culture and politics in mourning this immeasurable loss and in collectively reflecting on the hard lessons learned from this tragedy.

We share this universal Apache blessing dedicated to the victims, the survivors, the families, communities and all the students and staff of the Mahdia school.

MAY THE SUN bring you new energy by day: MAY THE MOONsoftly restore you by night:

MAY THE RAINwash away your worries: MAY THE BREEZEblow new strength into your being:

MAY YOU WALKgently through the world and knowits beauty, all the days of your life.

 Yours faithfully,

1. Vanda Radzik
2. Danuta Radzik
3. AyodeleDalgety-Dean
4. Josephine Whitehead
5. Janette Bulkan
6. Leila Jgdeo
7. Halima Khan
8. Wintress White
9. Susan Collymore
10. Vanessa Ross
11. Joy Marcus
12. Karen de Souza
13. Red Thread
14. Salima Bacchus-Hinds
15. Alma O’Connell
16. Kathleen Rodney-Scott
17. Alfred Bhulai
18. Christine Samwaroo
19. Maya Trotz
20. Emily Allicock
21. Gaietri Baron
22. Nicole Cole
23. Ernestine Logan
24. Karen Van Sluytman Corbin
25. Cheryl Sampson
26. Renata Chuck-A-Sang
27. Ivor Marslow
28. Jacqueline Allicock
29. Colin Klautky
30. Guyanese Organisation of Indigenous Peoples
31. Alissa Trotz
32. Jocelyn Dow
33. Lisa Thompson
34. Mosa Telford
35. Russel Lancaster
36. Isabelle de Caires
37. Mellissa Ifill
38. Abbyssinian
39. Rev Pat Sheerattan-Bisnauth
40. NeshaHaniff
41. Sandy de Freitas
42. Karen Naidoo
43. Kathleen Whalen
44. Ingrid Sarabo
45. Wazir Mohamed
46. Nigel Westmaas
47. Immaculata Casimero
48. Michelle Kenyon
49. Joses Solomon
50. Arlyne Ramdatt
51. Paula Mohamed
52. Gerald A Perreira
53. Charlene Wilkinson
54. Pamela Rodney
55. OmattieMadray
56. Virgil Harding
57. Bina Hill Institute – Youth Learning Cent

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