Raise awareness of this cross-generational pattern of broken families

downplay the importance of the Ministry of Social Protection.

A prerequisite for national development is healthy, happy, educated and productive adult citizens. It therefore means that any political administration serious about national development needs to zoom in to the challenge of and hindrances to human development. Policies for poverty reduction and wealth creation need to be developed in an integrated manner that is driven by data of actual problems being faced by Guyanese.

The University of Guyana can strengthen its engagement with the Ministry of Social Protection both in terms of evaluating the quality of its educational programmes powering staff of the Ministry as well as in the area of research. The Child Care and Protection Agency is in possession of data that can be used to support longitudinal studies to evaluate the effectiveness of their interventions and the Agency needs this help. One peeved father told me, while standing in one of those Republic Bank lines, that his daughter was taken away from him and given to the care of the mother. The mother was a careless woman who allowed the young teen to have boyfriends. The man’s daughter ended up pregnant and he was asked whether he would take responsibility for her in that condition, which he did. This is a clear example of the poor quality of decision making being done by the Child Care and Protection Agency which operates in constant fire-fighting mode with staff under-qualified to make effective decisions. When we have under-qualified staff operating in fire-fighting mode, as we do in Guyana, what can help are clearly thought out Statements of Operating Procedures based on known trends and patterns. In the example mentioned above, simply sending the child to live with the ‘mother’ is not a sufficient criteria. The Agency needs more information on the lifestyle of the mother because children are also sexually abused by mother’s boyfriends. If the laws of Guyana do not support the Agency making informed decisions on the future of children, the laws need to change.

I offer this bit of insight in the hopes that other psychologists and agencies in Guyana can help to raise awareness of this cross-generational pattern of broken hearts, broken relationships and broken families so that, as a nation, we can formulate better policies to yield better informed and happier citizens who can be empowered with the right knowledge and by the right education curriculum to break the cycle of poverty and ignorance that engulfs many of our families across generations of human suffering.

Yours faithfully, Sandra Khan