Social Protection Ministry commences sensitisation campaign in Reg. 10
─ residents engaged on the importance of speaking out against sexual abuse
─ several other communities to be targeted
DPI, Guyana, Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Officers attached to the Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) branch of the Ministry of Social Protection (MoSP) have commenced a multi-agency campaign, targeting outlying communities in the area. The exercise aims to sensitise residents on the role they play in tackling social ills in their communities, particularly sexual abuse.
The campaign commenced last week, with officers from the various departments – Child Protection; Early Childhood Development; the Labour Department and the Recruitment and Manpower Department, visiting communities up the Berbice River. These included Kwakwani, Hururu and Aroaima.
CPA Officer, Huette Moore, noted that one of the issues affecting these communities is the anxiety to speak out, which is deeply affecting the flow of information in tackling these social ills. “Therefore, the campaign will shed light on the importance of speaking out on child sexual abuse, which is the first hurdle of bringing the perpetrator to justice,” Moore explained.
At community meetings in Hururu and Kwakwani, residents were sensitised on the importance of speaking out. Children from Nursery to Secondary level were also sensitised on this important issue. This was done by way of school visits, that saw students being encouraged to share their stories of abuse with trusted individuals.
In addition, the Guyana Police Force (GPF), Region Ten Division’s, Sexual Offence Department, has embarked on community outreaches and sensitisation exercises, as part of the strategy employed in fighting this category of crime.
In addition to sexual abuse sensitisation efforts, the team also focused on early childhood development by visiting day-care centres in these communities while officials of the Department of Labour met with workers to discuss the various issues they might be facing.
Moore said that this will be a continuous effort and that other communities will be visited in the near future. “We are hoping that this could be a continuous collaborative effort, with the offices of the Ministry of Social Protection so that we can bring the information needed to the residents of Sub-Region Two, as well as we can better be able to address the reported cases of abuse in the community.”
In 2017, Region 10 had the highest incidents of abuse in the country. Moore, however, said that while the latest statistics for the region is still being tallied, there has been a decrease in the number of reported cases of abuse; therefore Region 10 is no longer so categorised.