Georgetown : A clearly defined process should be outlined to deal with sensitive matters being sent to medical facilities which may require further action, be it on the part of the Human Services Ministry or the Police Force. This assertion was made by Representative of the Indigenous People’s Commission (IPC), Nurse Patricia Singh. She was at the time highlighting a few cases that have been gaining the attention of the Commission. As a product of the Constitutional Reform process, the Commission is designed to amplify the challenges faced by indigenous people with a view of protecting their rights and improving their status.
Singh recalled an instance where a toddler was believed to have been sexually molested and was being attended to by a physician who appeared hesitant to deal with the matter in a legal light. However, a nurse au fait with the said matter was willing to reveal that it was in fact one that warranted legal attention. “There are cases where there are (health) personnel who are dealing with them but they do not want to report it…so we need to have a process in terms of how we deal with these cases going to any medical facility.”
Additionally, clarity of the process should extend to the police station as it relates to matters reported there, Singh said, even as she questioned “when you report the cases to the police station and you are not getting forward movement what do we do?”
The Commission, according to Singh, is yet putting in place mechanisms to deal more efficiently with complaints even as it seeks to address its financial capability. She revealed that while the ideal situation should see regional presence in terms of welfare, such a measure is currently not possible since there are not enough workers available to deal with cases. “Even in Georgetown I know that there are lots and lots of cases and I know we do not have a sufficient amount of workers…when cases come to me I quickly try to pass them on to the Human Services Ministry to deal with them,” Singh noted.
However, the Commission has been assessing a number of cases on its own including one relating to a troubled family in Region Nine.
This family, according to Singh, was first affected by the abandonment on the part of the father, who left his wife with the seven children both male and female. Subsequently, one of the daughters, a teenager, committed suicide.
The family’s dilemma did not stop there but continued when the mother, who was forced to travel to the city, left one of her male children in the care of the St Ignatius School Hostel as she had no place to leave him. Reports are that the lad became hungry and climbed a mango tree in hope to satisfying his hunger with the fruit. However, he reportedly ventured too far out on the limb which broke.
The lad fell to the ground suffered a broken jaw, two fractures to his left arm and another to his left femur. There are reports too that he was bleeding through his ear during an unescorted trip to the city having been attended to at the Lethem hospital and then being sent to seek medical attention in the city. “I personally went to meet him…I could not understand why a 10-year-old with multiple fractures was sent to the city unescorted,” said a concerned Singh as he presented the facts of the matter.
Another matter of concern highlighted by Singh was reports emanating from Region Nine too about a particular building where young men of questionable character were sexually assaulting young women. “They woo these young women and they sexually assault them and when they are finished they sometimes put them out on the road without any clothing…” According to Singh she has spoken with a number of people in authority and “I really hope that something will be done.”
