What Audrey could have done today! .Rosalee Gage-Grey: If persons find themselves desperate and unable to take care of their children they can come in and talk to us. Forty years after Audrey abandoned her child because she was destitute, Jamaica now has improved social services that could have intervened to help her, and reunite her with the only child she ever bore, when her circumstances improved. The Child Development Agency (CDA) is the organisation that leads the countrys child-protection system, and its establishment in 2004 was a merger of the Child Support Unit, the Childrens Services Division and the Adoption Division. The CDA has four regional offices and 13 parish offices, as well as childcare facilities. Audrey could have taken her baby to officials at the Clarendon office of the CDA. If persons find themselves desperate and unable to take care of their children they can come in and talk to us. We will not just take the child or children like that, because our experience is that a majority of parents do not want to give up their children, they just want their economic situation to get better, Rosalee Gage-Grey, chief executive officer of the CDA, told The Sunday Gleaner. Its when they come to us and we do the counselling and intervention that we find out more about their situation. Once we intervene, however, and find that the child is in need of care and protection, then we seek a Fit Person Order from the courts and take the child, or children, she noted. The CDA head said: Although many persons are struggling with a child or children, they do not want the State to put them up for adoption because there is this deadly fear that they will not be able to have another child, especially those with one child. She said mothers, in particular, should not take their children to the State and expect the State to keep them forever. She also said being poor does not equate to being unable to love and care for children. Private entities Private institutions such as Holy Innocence, run by the Father Richard Ho Lung-headed Missionaries of the Poor, and the Monsignor Gregory Ramkissoon-led Mustard Seed Communities are intervening social entities. The CDA operates under the purview of the Ministry of Youth and Culture, and has the responsibility to provide support to children in need of care and protection (those who have been, abused, abandoned, neglected or are vulnerable because of disability). It also carries out advocacy/public education programmes to prevent child abuse; investigates reports of child abuse, abandonment and neglect to determine the best interest of the child; supports the courts and the police; provides quality care for children who are brought into the care of the State (those who live in childrens homes and places of safety), and advises Government on policy and legal issues relating to children. The CDA offers residential childcare services. This includes direct responsibility for the operation and management of eight government childrens homes and places of safety, and the monitoring and licensing of more than 40 other private homes. The work of the CDA is governed by the Child Care and Protection Act, among other laws and policies. erica.virtue@gleanerjm
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 10:58:57 +0000
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