In the wake of the murder of the QC teen, whom, it was revealed, was also subjected to sexual abuse, the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security has renewed its call for more people to speak out against this crime.
Last month, Commissioner of Police Henry Greene said that police recorded a 25% decline in rape for this year, compared to last year. However, many cases of sexual abuse go unreported. In some cases, children believe that they have no one to turn to, and so they continue to suffer at the hands of the perpetrators.
Minister Priya Manickchand has revealed that for the past three years, the Human Services Ministry received 3,175 reports of child abuse, all of which, she noted, were investigated; while some are still being looked into.
Of that figure, 602 were recorded as sexual abuse complaints for the period June 2008 to June this year. Also, 700 abused children have been placed in safe care, while 198 have been ” reintegrated”.
Just recently, officers had rescued two children who complained about sexual violence, the minister said. One of the girls complained about sexual advances in her home, while the other complained about being subjected to sexual abuse since she was six. She is now 14.
In another case, Manickchand said, the ministry contacted police on Wednesday night to arrest the perpetrators, who were removed from the homes.
During a press briefing at the Human Services Ministry’s boardroom on Thursday, Manickchand said that the Childcare Protection Agency is designed specifically to take care of Guyana’s children, and has been functioning well since its official establishment last year.
She, however, explained that there are breaches in every system all across the world. “Without a doubt, the agency has been successful in addressing the child issues they have dealt with. We should not lose sight of the fact that the agency works 24 hours and there have been efforts made to improve services of the agency,” Manickchand said.
Manickchand said too that the ministry will continue to protect Guyana’s children and ensure that protocols are followed in the future. While extensive training has been done with welfare officers, there is always room for improvement, she said.
She added that the ministry will use Neesa Gopaul’s case as an example to implement new systems, and she is hopeful that this will be echoed by the citizenry to ensure all Guyanese children are protected from perpetrators who are bent on stealing their innocence.
Manickchand said that Cabinet had expressed outrage at the failure of the system, which stems from the fact that, after all that has been done, there still seems to be a breach of protocols that allowed for the matter to slip through the crack.
The CPA is one which the minister says has clear, penned proto cols on how they should treat child issues. On Thursday, she said that initial investigations revealed that there was a breach of the agency’s protocols, and as such the entire administration and staff of the agency will be reviewed.
“All the systems were in place to make sure breaches did not happen, yet they happened…And so I agree that the investigation comes after a breach was made and had fatal consequences… but we need to use this as an opportunity to perfect a system that is good and served many children ever since the establishment of the agency”, she said.
