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Friday, January 31, 2025

Do what is needed to save our children now

by

988 days ago
20220518

“Sheep spend their lives afraid of the wolf but in the end, it is the shep­herd that eats them.” The words of Robert Sab­ga, the man who chaired the 1997 com­mit­tee that in­ves­ti­gat­ed ten chil­dren’s homes in T&T. The in­ves­tiga­tive team Sab­ga head­ed found “an en­dem­ic kick­back sys­tem” and un­li­censed homes with no ap­proval for op­er­a­tion still re­ceiv­ing State sub­ven­tions.

Even more star­tling is that 25 years af­ter that re­port was sub­mit­ted, one of those homes is still op­er­at­ing and from re­cent in­for­ma­tion in the pub­lic do­main, is still un­li­censed and still re­ceiv­ing sub­ven­tions.

It is in­deed a wor­ri­some sit­u­a­tion that un­li­censed homes con­tin­ue to ben­e­fit from state fund­ing with what ap­pears to be lit­tle or no over­sight. It is time that the prob­lem is fixed.

The state of these homes over decades and abuse at these fa­cil­i­ties of the chil­dren, who are to­day adults, should be cause for con­cern for every right-think­ing cit­i­zen. It is hard to be­lieve tax­pay­ers’ dol­lars are used to fa­cil­i­tate such heinous acts against chil­dren, even while there ap­pears to be no prop­er over­sight at these homes.

This news­pa­per was the first to re­port on the Robert Sab­ga re­port in Jan­u­ary, when Sab­ga raised ques­tions about the lack of ac­tion and ex­pressed con­cern that some of the same is­sues of two decades ago ex­ist to this day.

How many chil­dren have we failed as a coun­try in the past 25 years and how many have suf­fered be­cause of the state’s fail­ure to act?

Yes­ter­day, the Ro­man Catholic Church an­nounced it was launch­ing its own probe fol­low­ing the rev­e­la­tion of the re­cent Jus­tice Ju­dith Jones re­port in­to chil­dren’s homes. Arch­bish­op Ja­son Gor­don said the Church’s in­ves­tiga­tive team will com­prise ex­perts in psy­chol­o­gy, child­care/so­cial work, law and hu­man re­source man­age­ment.

De­clar­ing that “every child is a gift from God and de­serves love and pro­tec­tion from all forms of abuse,” Arch­bish­op Gor­don said the al­le­ga­tions con­tained in the Jones re­port “grieve our hearts and we shall do every­thing we can to bring heal­ing and jus­tice.”

It is time that every re­li­gious and oth­er or­gan­i­sa­tions that run chil­dren’s homes be called to ac­count. They have the fu­ture of this coun­try un­der their care and yet it seems wan­ton abuse un­der their stew­ard­ship goes un­no­ticed and un­pun­ished. Who is guard­ing the guards?

Some of those who com­mit­ted the crimes against chil­dren have died, oth­ers have moved on. The pain and suf­fer­ing re­main in­deli­bly etched on the minds and hearts of those who were abused. Changes must mean that homes fail­ing must lose state fund­ing, must be shut down and any of­fi­cial found cul­pa­ble must face the full brunt of the law.

The abuse in these homes is per­haps one of the worst kept se­crets in this coun­try. How many me­dia re­ports have there been of chil­dren run­ning away—in one case, a child was bru­tal­ly mur­dered af­ter es­cap­ing from one of them. Weren’t those re­ports enough of a wake-up call?

This prob­lem is fix­able but re­quires the po­lit­i­cal will to do it. It is time, there­fore, to stop the hypocrisy and croc­o­dile tears and do what is re­quired to save the in­no­cent chil­dren.


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