Home Letters The heart of the mother: Three children roasted to death
Dear Editor,
I write this letter to get into the heart and consciousness, the wisdom and positive thought of our Excellency Dr Irfaan Ali, the people’s Cabinet, and mostly the Hon Minister of Human Services. The topic speaks for itself and I know it’s a harsh topic. The harshness of the caption is intended to help open the eyes of the people, particularly those whom we have had and whom we have as our Government to manage the affairs of this country and indirectly, the affairs of our lives. When we hire a Government, it does great honour to them. Also, we bequeath to them our trust, faith, hopes, and all the endeavours that we are entrusted within our souls by the creator.
It is a great honour for a political party to become a Government to serve our people! This Government of Guyana in my opinion serves excellently and well although no one is perfect. Yet I would like to applaud them for always trying to go to the people and for listening to the people. So this lamentation from the depths of my heart is to cry out to the consciousness of our Government for those people who are in need.
The roasting to death of these three beautiful children and the wrecking of the heart of the mother to whose body the children were part of for nine (9) months, all of whom took years to wean. Men abandoned women and children after they would have had their pleasure, leaving them to wonder in pain and travail to make ends meet. Imagine the mental torture and physical abuse in most cases from men, who enjoyed their mothers’ bodies and just used them.
It is said that the fire is of electrical origin but the fact remains that the children and the mother suffered at the hands of the man. Father(s) would always cause bewilderment, confusion, and trauma in the minds of the mother and the children.
No Government in the world can ever provide perfect Social Service to everyone in every community and at all times. They can provide some support and help in various communities to cater to single parents and families. In these situations, such support is created as a nurturing environment for these children when a single parent mother or father has to go to work.
So what do we do? Here are my suggestions:
1. I ask our Government through the Hon Minister Vindhya Persaud of Human Services to work in various communities in order to create a support system which would be at a percentage of costs. The parents would have to aid in subsidising the cost and some fundraising will also go a long way. I am speaking of the various communities having facilities, be it the use of a kindergarten school, be it sections of a Government school or some area of social service.
Like community centres and all-purpose centres. We have seen many all-purpose centres throughout the country that are hardly ever used, these can also be utilised. The Government can partner with the leaders of the communities in association with the various NDCs and or CDCs to have homes where these children could rest overnight while the parents are working, as nights are more vulnerable. This way we can lower the chances of potential accidental fires that may be caused by minor children being left unattended who may want to experiment.
2. In number one I am admitting that there have been accidental fires like these that have taken these lives. There have been intentional fires set by passionate drunken fathers that kill the mother and children. There have been fires set by drunken passionate husbands to create havoc in the family.
3. To encourage members of the various communities to report situations like these to the authorities, where children are left alone as well as the elderly or mentally ill.
4. To the authorities to not necessarily harass or prosecute the single parent, particularly the mother but so that the Ministry responsible could pay some attention to the children and parents with her excellent team backing her up. Our Hon Minister is a soul that is known to be most divine and I am sure she and her team will consider some of the views that I have mentioned here and maybe others that they will come up with.
My prayer and hope are to prevent crises like these from occurring, I am sure the Hon Minister and her dedicated team may have ideas far better than mine.
Sincerely,
Hajji
Dr Roshan Khan