Worldwide, it is estimated that some 132 million children are orphans with an assessed eight million living in institutional care.
In Guyana, child care institutions form part of the first level of response for children who cannot have parental care for reasons of orphanhood and other vulnerabilities such as poverty, abuse, family breakdown, parental neglect, disease and disability. In a report entitled, “Status of Child Protection and Foster Care in Guyana”, it was noted that in 2003, there were already an estimated 22,000 orphans in Guyana with an estimated 7000 due to HIV/AIDS. As such, this led to the previous Government partnering with UNICEF in establishing mechanisms so that families can be strengthened to provide care for children thus ensuring that institutional care is a last-resort consideration. The fruits of such partnerships were highlighted recently when the Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA) announced that children in institutional care dropped by 25 per cent. Statistics released by the CCPA reveal that some 165 children are being housed at the Sophia Care Centre and Half-way Home, the Mahaica Children’s Home and the Drop-in Centre. This is a significant reduction compared to earlier this year when it was reported that 700 children were in institutional care. The decline in children in such care in Guyana comes at a time when the CCPA is working with the Social Protection Ministry to develop a national policy document for children in institutional care. According to CCPA’s Director, Ann Greene, that document will be completed by the end of 2016. The national policy will be focusing on supporting, protecting and caring for children who, due to their circumstances, are placed in institutional care.
Over the years, Guyana has made many strides with respect to protecting children as compared to many other countries in the Caribbean and Latin America.
However, these were not without their challenges and, as such, implementing a world fit for children has not been without challenges and setbacks, some of which are greater than those occasioned by financial and infrastructural constraints.
Certainly, this Administration should continue on the progress it inherited, as more needs to be done to protect children in vulnerable situations.
Former Education Minister Priya Manickchand, in her then role as Human Services Minister, had said that vulnerability can be considered in terms of geographic location and economy, as well as age. In the developed and developing countries alike, it is the children who are most vulnerable.
In the 2016 budget, the Child Care and Protection Agency received a budgetary allocation of $471 million and the utilisation of such will go an extensive way in ensuring that children in institutional care are placed in families, be it with the biological parents, or via adoption or foster care.
The care, protection and development of all our children, in whom lies the future of humanity, are objectives that demand pride of place on our national and global agendas. Guyana, over the years, stood committed to those objectives. In moving forward, the Social Protection Ministry should ensure that despite the circumstances which lead to a child being left in care institutions, his or her education should be a priority. Education is critically important to children’s social integration and psychosocial well-being. According to research conducted by the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), school attendance helps children affected by any sort of trauma to regain a sense of normalcy and to recover from the psychosocial impacts of their experiences and disrupted lives. Orphans and vulnerable children stand in particular need of an education intervention as they are most vulnerable due to economic hardships, reduced parental care and protection.
In moving forward, the Ministry can begin to examine the possibility of deinstitutionalising orphanages and look to alternative forms of institutional measures that tend to recreate a family-like setting. Children’s group homes and children’s villages are the most popular forms developed which many other countries are adopting.
