Baramita worst affected community for suicide, rape, alcohol

…teenage pregnancy out of control – ROC report

By Jeanna Pearson

The Indigenous Village of Baramita, Region One (Barima-Waini) was high on the watchlist for having the highest incidences of suicide, alcoholism and violence in the Hinterland regions, a recently concluded Right of the Child (ROC) Report disclosed.
The ROC, an arm of the Guyana Human Rights Association, report showed videos of young girls and boys telling stories of their peers being raped, joining the sex trade, and becoming pregnant as early as 13.
The Rights of the Child conducted research in three hinterland regions – One, Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) – all of which are predominantly populated by Indigenous peoples. The aim of the study was to garner understanding on how mining and life in a mining community influences sexual harassment and violence.
However, coupled with the soaring rates of sexual harassment and violence, the researchers discovered that there were escalating incidences of alcoholism and teenage pregnancy.
“Baramita Region One is the worst affected… escalating levels of sexual violence, high levels of suicide, spiral use of alcohol and drugs, all contribute to this crisis,” an ROC representative said, stressing that other communities are not as badly affectedly, but will become so if mining is not urgently addressed.
The representative opined that all of these social issues revolve around the ever growing trend of mining in indigenous communities. Nevertheless, the representative stated that while mining has its perks, the “social chaos” it causes is more than the economic benefits.

Suicide and alcohol
One of the commentators in the report indicated that alcohol is so common, parents would just hand their children over to “mature persons just to get a bottle of high wine.” The woman stated that the men would drink until they were highly intoxicated and then there would be fights.
“They have a weakness for alcohol and they seem not to have self-control when they begin to drink,” another ROC representative stated.
The ROC report revealed that children ages 10 and 11 would drink until they become drunk because there is no supervision by their parents. There is a report that a 10-year-old boy drank himself to death.
“It is one of the leading causes of suicide in the village,” the representative said, noting that “High Wine” is the most common liquor used by the Indigenous peoples. So the prevalence of alcohol combined with an absence of recreational facilities and jobs create a sense of hopeless in the community, causing teenagers to give into suicide or prostitution.
Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) staff in Guyana, Priti Singh, had stated at the Caribbean Public Health Research Conference, that on average, Guyanese have consumed more than eight litres of pure alcohol in 2010 compared to the global figure of 6.2 litres – indicating consumption to be 8.1 litres per person age 15 or older.
“Young people who begin to drink in early teens are more likely to become dependent on alcohol within 10 years, as compared to those who begin to drink in late teens and early 20s,” she stated, highlighting that intentional injuries resulting from violence are another public health hitch that accounts for high loss of life and disability among young people in the region, with a great proportion from effects of drinking.
Currently, Guyana has no written policy adopted or revised to fight alcoholism. Singh noted that there are “no legally binding regulations on alcohol advertising and product placement, as well as no legal regulations on alcohol sponsorship sales. A national legal minimum age limit for purchase of alcohol exists, however it is not enforced.”
Researchers in the Region have continuously questioned why Guyana always appears on the extreme end of the continuum when

discussions of social issues come up.
Junior Minister, Dr Karen Cummings, told Guyana Times that the ministry has adopted a firm approach to tackling the blight of alcoholism and suicide in Baramita. She stated that the ministry has established a mental health unit in the region and they are training people there and counselling them.
“This is the top community we are targeting,” she said, highlighting that the ministry, along with a team from PAHO, had visited the village and identified the underlying issues causing suicide and alcoholism and that “it is on the forefront of our mandate”.
She added that the ministry is presently focused on getting the tobacco legislation passed in Parliament before it begins to bombard the problem of alcoholism.

Violence and teenage pregnancy
In the report, a young boy recalled that one of his close relatives was raped by an uncle in Matthew’s Ridge. He stated that the girl, who was just seven years old, bled so much that she was air dashed from the regional hospital to the Georgetown Public Hospital for medical attention.
There was another case where an eight-year-old girl was dragged into a clump of bushes, raped and left there bleeding. No proper investigation was carried out.
Most of these young girls, the representative from ROC said, would find themselves in the prostitution trade after being raped; of which most of them would be school drop outs. One teenaged girl recalled that there were three cases of underage pregnancy in her school – all three of the girls being younger than 13 years.
The report revealed that 70 per cent of people in the village have marks of violence on their skin—marks placed there by someone under the influence of alcohol.
CARPHA representative, Dr Sara Crooks stated that Guyana is one of the countries which exceed the average injury-death rate, along with Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Dr Crooks revealed that intentional injuries, including violence and self-inflicted injuries are significant contributors to injury-related deaths for many countries in the region, with deaths resulting from self-inflicted injuries accounting for over 25 per cent of injury-related deaths in Guyana. Crooks had gathered her data using the CARPHA regional mortality database for the period of 2007-2013.
The ROC recommended that recreational facilities should be established in the community and teachers should adopt a more pro-active approach is spotting cases of sexual harassment and violence in schools.
“The ROC hopes that with establishment of its clubs in these schools would identify and address the issues of sexual violence in each region… students would become more empowered and come up with solutions,” the ROC representative said.