Teens disappear from Berbice orphanage: Mother of missing 15-year-old blames CC&PA, orphanage

The mother of one of the three girls who went missing from a Corentyne orphanage just over two weeks ago is now blaming the Child Care and Protection Agency (CC&PA) for the child’s disappearance.
The mother has criticised the agency and the administration of the orphanage for allowing the situation to develop to the extent whereby three girls ran away and cannot be found.
Earlier in the week, it was reported that three girls aged 14, 15 and 16 had run away from the Canaan Orphanage at Port Mourant, Corentyne, without a trace. The children were reportedly taken into custody by the CC&PA and handed over to the orphanage to be taken care of.
The reasons for removing the children from their respective homes were not disclosed but the parents are holding out that the children should have received better care. However, following the disappearance, the parents were not made aware until a week after.
The mother of the 15-year-old girl had reported that after finding out that her daughter was missing, she was advised by the Child Care and Protection Agency not to inform the media about the incident.
The 15-year-old had been a resident of the orphanage from the age of 11 while the 14- and 16-year-olds were relatively newcomers.

Speaking with this publication, the mother related that one week after the teenager had gone missing, she received a telephone call from an officer from the CC&PA office at Whim inquiring whether her daughter had visited her.
After replying in the negative, it was then she was told that the child had run away. “So, I tell her that I will call by my relatives to see if she had contacted them but the call was disconnected.”
According to the mother, the following day she telephoned the orphanage to make inquiries and was told that the teenager was indeed missing. “They tell me that she follow dem two other girls and run away.”
The woman said she subsequently heard that her daughter had a cellular phone and was using it to communicate with a male. As such, she questioned the reason for her not being informed of the situation but a solid response was not provided. It was only on Monday last; the mother was officially informed that the Police had gotten involved and were in search of the missing teenagers.
“What I want to know is why they did not tell me since they know that she had a cell phone. If anything happens to my daughter, the Child Protection Agency will be responsible. If not, I will go very far with his story. We don’t know if anybody kill her or doing her anything. A lot of things does go on at that orphanage,” she said, while providing information which she asked not to be made public.
“Plenty of people talking about that orphanage. I want the authorities to look into it. Night time I can’t sleep because of this thing with this girl,” she added.
Regional Commander Jairam Ramlakhan has confirmed that the Police are making every effort to locate the whereabouts of the three teenagers.