New morgue to cater for high murder rate in Baramita

A morgue will be constructed in 2018 in the Amerindian village of Baramita in Region One (Barima-Waini) to cater for the high murder and suicide rates in that particular community.
Vice Chairperson of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region One, Sarah Browne, made this disclosure during a recent interview with Guyana Times.
Browne said this is part of the capital works to be undertaken in Region One in

2018. “And that is part of our upgrade. Last year we would have focused most of our capital resources towards that area since we all know the situation, that Baramita has a high murder and suicide rate,” she said.
In addition to this, the regional official also pointed out that the community, which is located in the Matarkai Sub-district, is also faced with high school drop outs and teenage pregnancy.
“They also have different sorts of violence including rape, exploitation,” Brown explained, while noting that women in particular are taken advantage of by persons in that community.
The RDC official said an entire complex within a compound was constructed, and extensions were done to the hospital, the schools, and the doctors and nurses quarters to improve the services offered.
“We will be upgrading staff quarters at Mabaruma Hospital, constructing a doctor’s quarter at Waramuri and Moruca and that is to house a resident doctor to serve additional satellite villages.”
Upon assuming office in 2015, the regional Vice Chairwoman of Region One said the issues were too much for the RDC to take charge of, since it does not have responsibility for social services.
“So we would have engaged the Minister of Social Protection on this issue, as well as the Minister of Amerindian Affairs. Subsequently, a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) was launched into Baramita, which we were a part of and which we would have also gone out to the areas,” she explained.
The CoI found that children were not attending school because of the reports of constant violence in the village. Parents in particular were afraid to send their children to school because of complaints. Hospital records also prove that there were large influxes of patients treated for lacerations.
She said, “Alcoholism is also very rampant in that community and we are hoping that once we have these facilities in place, we are going to make the school child-friendly. We would have already invested in the 2017 Budget to purchase a minibus. That would take students to and from school.”
Browne told Guyana Times that the RDC has also received credible information that proves that mining plays a major role in the violence that is taking place rampantly in Baramita. “We find that coast landers are coming into Baramita and more or less exploiting the people since we have them mining gold and we have persons being exploited, the women particularly raped and so forth.”
The RDC has raised these issues with the Police in F Division (Interior locations) and as a result of the discussion, there is now a higher Police presence and more female ranks were stationed at the Police outpost.
Reports in 2015 stated that Baramita had recorded 48 suicide cases in four years before that time and from 2007, over 73 Carib persons from the community have committed suicide by hanging.
In that same year, a six-year-old attempted to end his life. One year later, an 11-year-old boy succumbed after being given “high wine (high proof alcohol) and Banko (wine),” to consume. Additionally, there is the issue of mistreatment of women and children, which also requires urgent measures.
Amerindian Affairs Minister Sydney Allicock has noted the issues facing Baramita and acknowledged that the suicide rate has increased over a short period of time, which could be caused by the abundance of alcohol distributed within the village by business people.