Childcare agency hosts special Parenting Training in Region 10
– hundreds of parents benefit from training
– aims to eradicate child abuse
DPI, Guyana, Monday, July 02, 2018
The Child Care and Protection Agency (CPA) Linden branch is on a mission to significantly decrease incidents of child abuse by targeting parents who are neglecting their children thus leaving them vulnerable.
For 2018, hundreds of parents from eight communities across Region 10 Upper Demerara-Berbice have benefited from this special parenting training. During the week (June 17-22), 86 parents graduated from Coomacka Mines and 56 from the community of Amelia’s Ward. Other communities that benefited were Canvas City, Victory Valley, Old England and Nottinghamshire.
Supervisor of CPA (ag) in Region 10, Huette Moore revealed that the initiative is the brainchild of Director of Children Services, Ann Greene. In a previous interview, Greene said that one way to reduce the incidents of child abuse is to raise awareness among parents. Many parents, she said, lack the capacity to parent responsibly, thus putting their children at risk.
In an invited comment, Moore said: “Parents have to see that they need to be the role models for their children by the example they set … when they get frustrated they can come to CPA for guidance on how to deal with the situation.”
Moore revealed that parents found guilty of neglect will now face the full brunt of the law. As such, the Agency’s initiative aims to prevent the situation from reaching to this stage, while decreasing incidents of abuse in the Region.
At a recent graduation held at the Linden Foundation Secondary School in Amelia’s Ward on June 21, Linden’s Town Clerk (ag) Orleena Obermuller advised the parents, “Good parenting means teaching him or her to lead a good and happy life in our imperfect world. Being a good parent means you need to teach your child morals; what is right and what is wrong. Setting limits and being firm and kind can be two keys to good discipline.”
One graduate, Marcia Peters, explained that the programme was of tremendous benefit to her and made a commitment to share what she learnt with others. “It has been a tremendous thing for me. I learned how to better deal with problems with children and I hope that this is a continuous programme so that everybody that missed it will able to get the opportunity to learn how to handle situations better,” she said
Statistics in 2017 reveal that Region 10 has the highest child abuse rate, with child neglect topping the charts followed by child sexual abuse,
CPA will be targeting as many communities possible until the entire Region 10 has been reached. Other programmes such as the teenage prevention pregnancy programme will also be rolled out.
By: Vanessa Braithwaite
Images: Vanessa Braithwaite