Pres. Ali sets up Task Force to look into comprehensive actions for children’s welfare, safety

President Dr Irfaan Ali on Friday afternoon held a consultative engagement with representatives from Government, the Judiciary, the Speaker of the National Assembly, constitutional commissions, law enforcement agencies and civil society organisations to discuss a number of key and critical issues concerning the mental health, welfare and safety of Guyana’s most precious assets, its children.

Based upon recent events, stakeholders at the meeting agreed that immediate, drastic and coordinated actions must be taken by several segments of society in order to address the wide variety of factors that have led to the current situation.

This approach must include parents, the Government, the school system, the social and religious organisations, law enforcement, the Judiciary, and every other important stakeholder organisation in society.

Public awareness, education, parental support, activities at schools, psychosocial support, mentoring, the promotion of healthy, recreational activities, regulating exposures to music, social media and other such influences, revision of laws, reviewing law enforcement approach and adjustments in the administration of justice, among other measures, were all considered key and critical to addressing this national problem.

To address all the issues discussed and in fashioning a comprehensive approach, th3 Head of State directed the Attorney General to coordinate an inter-agency task force that will comprise representatives from government, the judiciary, law enforcement, religious organisations, civil society and other relevant stakeholders to conceive and design a comprehensive plan of recommendations and actions for review and implementation.

This multiple-stakeholer engagement comes days after at least three children were killed in Guyana in separate incidents.

Six-year-old Orlando Jaikarran’s decomposed and headless body was recovered on Monday, October 19, from the Waterloo Main Canal, West Coast Berbice – five days after he was reported missing from his Bath Settlement, WCB, home.

The child’s father, 45-year-old, Bharrat Jaikarran, was subsequently arrested and later confessed to killing his son and dumping his body. He took investigations to the location, where the boy’s body was found.

The father, a cane harvester of Bath Settlement, was charged and arraigned for his son’s murder on Friday. He was remanded to prison.

Then on October 19, a three-year-old boy, Keron Latchman, and his mother, 29-year-old Donette Albert, both perished in a fire at their home in David James Housing Scheme, Essequibo Coast. The child’s father and the woman’s reputed husband was later arrested.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, six-year-old Zi Feng Cao of Johnson Street, Parika, East Bank, Essequibo (EBE), was chopped to death by a 76-year-old Chinese national, who had a dispute with the child’s parents over money.