CPA providing the needed help for children in Linden

─ 25 children registered in ALS programme

─ programme to continue annually

DPI, Guyana, Thursday, July 25, 2019

Twenty-five students attached to the Child Protection Agency (CPA) Linden branch, who were victims of neglect and abuse are benefitting from a summer Alternative Learning System (ALS) programme. This is geared towards boosting their ability to cope in the classroom, in the upcoming school year.

This is the first year the CPA would have collaborated with ALS to help the children. CPA embarked on this initiative because they found that abused or neglected children within their system cannot focus within the classroom because of their traumatic experiences.

According, Senior Child Protection Officer attached to the Region 10 office, Huette Moore, children who have been abused have difficulty performing in the school setting. It is not only the CPA’s desire to see the children reintegrate better in the school’s setting after their experiences, but to become healed individuals and to better cope with society as a whole.

This programme aims to improve their phonetic awareness, word blending, reading, competency skills, vocabulary and comprehension. Facilitating the programme is Janette Campbell, from the Philippines. She is trained in providing ALS to abused and children living with disabilities and has been managing the programme in Guyana for seven years. The programme is designed specifically for these children and is individualised to meet every child’s specific challenge.

Additionally, activities are designed to help them cope better in a classroom setting, therefore boosting their academic performance. “It is a privilege for me to work with the ministry, to work with these particular children because back in the Philippines, that’s the nature of my job, I worked with the Child Protection Agency… I can even find indicators if the children are abused and I do the treatment as well,” she said.

Campbell will be providing training to other individuals to provide the needed tutelage to abused children.

CPA Officer Moore hopes to establish an ALS centre in Linden as well as expand the services to other regions in Guyana in the future.