Orphanages

Last Saturday, invited by a fellow VSO volunteer, attached to the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sport (fun and games), I went along to help at an Activity Day held at the Ministry's sport's ground. The guests were 150 children with an age range from toddlers to late teens, the majority in the 7-17 grouping, all from two of the town's orphanages.
I arrived in time to help distribute lunches, prepared from scratch (all catering here is prepared from fresh ingredients) by a small army of women in the kitchen behind the bar. The children tucked into fried chicken, cook- up rice and chow mein, served in individual styrofoam containers.
During the day  the organisers, helped by a number of older pupils on the President's Young Volunteers scheme ( a sort of Duke of Edinburgh/Community Service award) from some of the prestigious Georgetown high schools supervised  a cricket match, tug of war, races and a dance competition.

I did recognise and talk with some of the children as I have seen them in classrooms in the special schools I go into.

An impromptu Tug of War- the podium for the dance contest is in the foreground.

Seeing such a crowd of children, all orphans and vulnerable young people, prompted me to find out more. I had previously been made aware of pupils coming to school from a "shelter" or a "home", but my experience on this day moved me to ask and find out more.

Internet research gave some facts- but also a lack of the sorts of lists and registry we would expect in the UK. One charity website listed 26 orphanages for Guyana, each name indicating support from one of the country's main religions: Christian denominations, Hindu and Muslim; as well as international charities- the Red Cross and Leonard Cheshire homes for example. 

There was no such list from a government website, although it is clear the government have been working with UNICEF, the World Bank and others to meet needs of an estimated 30,000 orphans out of an under 18's population of 269,000- about 11% of all children. 

The reasons for this state of affairs are sadly all too familiar: poverty, HIV and AIDS (Guyana has the second highest incidence in the Caribbean after Haiti), violence, alcohol and other drug abuse, and internal and external migration of adults seeking work (there are more Guyanese in the cities of Toronto and New York combined than there are in Guyana).

Guyana's government has in place an active HIV and AIDS prevention and de-stigmatising programme. The government is working to regularise operating standards within homes, to support families and communities' capacities to look after orphans and vulnerable children.

And in answer to my question to myself- What to do?- I have consciously changed my assumptions of pupils' experiences out of school (which were very UK based), and tried to adjust how I approach both pupils and teachers when in the classroom.

Among my VSO friends, we have talked about our shared experiences in this area, and as one of our number already works with the Red Cross orphanage, we have already made initial enquiries about offering our services during the Christmas period, particularly on Christmas Day. 

Watch this blog for up dates- and information on how we - and may be you?- may help.