Social ills on increase at Charity – APNU/AFC Councillor

There have been an increase of social ills in the fast-growing community of Charity in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) and according to Government Councillor Julian Cummings more social work needed to be conducted in the area.

Cummings was at the time speaking at the monthly statutory Regional Democratic Council (RDC) meeting held on March 14 at Anna Regina.

Cummings, during his address to his fellow Councillors, stated that child labour was prevalent in the area and the Education Department through its welfare section needed to step up on its truancy campaigns.

“Every day you go Charity, you see teenagers who are supposed to be in school

are involved in laborious work; they are robbed of an education, the social ills increasing,” Cummings said.

With that, he said that youths were unemployed and as such, were constantly involved in unlawful activities. He, therefore, called on the Commander of G Division (Essequibo Islands and Coast) to pay keen attention and to conduct frequent patrolling in the area.

He said often youths were involved in drugs and allegedly, young girls were trafficking same. Cummings said he believed that focus needed to be placed on the area to get youths off the streets and educational programmes needed to be implemented to get them involved meaningfully.

“It’s wrong to have children working; they need to be in school, no jobs for them. They are being pressured; education officers need to clamp down on this; especially [at] Xenon Street children are seen loitering and involved in illegal activities,” the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Councillor stated.

After Cummings’ comments on the topic, Head of the RDC, Regional Chairman Devanand Ramdatt said that indeed the area required more attention. He, therefore, called on the Education Department officials to be more visible in that community. A request was also made for RDC and Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) Councillors to conduct frequent outreaches in the areas, reaching out to persons and youths through community engagement.