Sad’r Orphanage housemother refutes abuse allegations by former residents

Sad’r Orphanage housemother refutes abuse allegations by former residents By Andre Haynes
Stabroek News
March 4, 2003

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Two boys are accusing former tutors and the housemother of the Shaheed’s (Sad’r) Boys Orphanage of physically abusing them while they were residents of the institution, nearly five years ago.

The housemother and the executive director of the Guyana United Sad’r Islamic Anjuman (GUSIA), which has responsibility for the management of the institution, however refuted their claims and are baffled by the motives behind these accusations at this time.

The orphanage has come under scrutiny following the murder of one of its boys. Two persons including the former acting Chief Executive Officer of the orphanage have been charged with the murder of the boy.

The body of 12-year-old Abass Mohammed is scarred from old wounds. Wounds which he and his mother, Data Sukoo, say were inflicted while he had been a resident of the orphanage, along with his nine-year-old brother, Intiaz Ali Mohammed.

The boys told Stabroek News they had received severe beatings at the hands of the housemother, others who worked at the institution and two former residents, one who served as a tutor and another, who was and still is a member of the disciplinary services.

Of those named, several remain at the orphanage. The two boys also implicated some of the older boys in the institution who they say would also participate in their abuse.

The older boy, Abass, said there were numerous instances when items such as barbed wire, a drop cord, a cutlass, bed boards and other pieces of wood were used to inflict beatings on him and other children at the orphanage.

His back is marked with numerous scars, which he says are as a result of the beatings. There are also scars on Abass’ head which he says are from the times when the thrashings, inflicted on him by some of the older boys, opened gashes across his skull.

He described punishments during which he was tied to a bench and left to lie there until the next day; another, where both his hands and feet were bound and he was placed to kneel on the ground and with his tied hands made to hold a bench into the air.

And of the housemother, Bibi Naz Hakim, he said,

“When she come upstairs she just pinch [your] ears, lash [you] with a wood and... she tell them to `beat him more.’

Asked whether he told anyone of the beatings, he said out of fear of it getting back to the orphanage which would mean more punishment, he never told anyone, except for his mother who did not believe him at the time.

The younger boy, Intiaz, meanwhile said they were beaten to do everything at the orphanage.

“Them does beat we.. fuh sweep the bottom house, clean all about. And when we go upstairs and read. Read [the] Muslim thing. When we [don’t] know it good, they does take a long, long wood and beat we. And when people come and bring food for we... When they done beat we, them does say: `Wipe your eye. Any time dem people come and you let them know’ they gon give we more licks when we go upstairs.”

He also described instances where the boys of the orphanage would be made to stand in line and each after the other, would be forced to place his fingers on a bench. One of the older boys would then proceed to pound on their fingers with pieces of wood. At other times they were just lined up and were beaten, sometimes the only reason being for soiling their school clothes, which they were required to wash. He said because of this they were sometimes afraid of returning to the orphanage after school. At other times, he said they were beaten to merely read or learn scriptures from the Holy Quran.

Because of the severity of some of the blows which were inflicted, some children would scream very loudly, prompting, on some occasions, persons passing along the street to question why the children were being beaten, Intiaz said.

The boy related one instance when one of the others was being beaten. His screaming attracted a policewoman who ran into the building and warned that the children were not to be beaten. The man who had been administering the blows on the child meanwhile hid himself when the officer entered the building.

Other punishments included being locked in a storeroom at the back of the orphanage and both boys also claimed to have been starved for days on end while they were at the orphanage, only eating when some benefactors would bring food..

Speaking about the treatment his older brother received he related that beatings were so severe that “Abass couldn’t even come down from upstairs.”

Could not provide

Sukoo said her sons were placed in the orphanage through the Welfare Department because she could not adequately provide for them. She said her other children were older and could help themselves while the two young boys were taken because they were found begging. Restricted to only monthly visits she said when she visited the institution the boys would frequently ask her to take them with her, complaining that they were starved.

“When I used to go there they used to tell [me] mommy... we want to come out of the orphanage. I said son you can’t come out of the orphanage. And I said mommy don’t have no way to mine ya. Mommy we get bad licks and so. One time when I go I see Abass head burst he say Mommy is nothing. I said nothing? ya head got a big burst. The small children said a big boy beat he and burst he head shove he down. I never ask he what happen. I never tell anybody because I always tell myself that it was a punishment they had to go through. Because I couldn’t provide for them.”

The woman recalled that on another occasion she had gone to visit her son but was informed that he could not come to see her. She said she went in anyway and found her son naked. On other occasions she said she was told her children were not there.

She also said that beatings were inflicted by older boys in the orphanage.

At one point during his stay at the orphanage Abass’ left arm was broken during an accident and Sukoo was never officially informed.

The two boys were removed from the institution shortly before 1999, when according to Sukoo, she had gone to visit her son and was informed on the spot that she had to remove the older boy from the home.

“They said... carry away Abass, and then [Intiaz] cried to come out and they said you want to come out too? You come out.” When they left the orphanage the two boys left with nothing save the clothes on their backs.

The woman tearfully recalled that it was not until she took her sons home that she discovered marks of violence on their arms, scars on Abass’ back and gashes on his head. She later took her son to the hospital when he continued to bleed.

Never beaten

The housemother, Hakim, however claims otherwise. She says she remembers the boys and denies that they were ever beaten.

“Never. They were never beaten. [No one] of the kids here [are] ever beaten. They really have to do something really wrong to get a little spanking. But we don’t beat them. We counsel them. And even if you [had to] beat them you don’t beat them so cruelly,” she told Stabroek News.

The woman further explained that it is a requirement of any parent who removes a child from the institution to strip the child and examine their bodies for any marks of violence. She was puzzled as to why, if the allegations were true, did the mother not go to the police and why has she waited so many years to bring their accusations to the public?

“The information that those children giving is wrong, no mother would wait until this time and she is one of the mothers who was here every week she was allowed to see the children...I just can’t understand how these children come about saying these things like this...”

Parents are also supposed to give a written testimony of the condition of their children, the day they undertake to remove them from the institution, Hakim explained.

One of the former residents who the boys say inflicted beatings on them, the housemother explained, grew up in the orphanage and later became a teacher at the institution.

Asked if she knew whether he had ever inflicted any injuries on any of the children in the orphanage, she said she couldn’t say because she was usually never present during his teachings. But when she was, she never saw anything.

“But I don’t think so because he is teaching the children, [he’s] not [there] to put blows on them, but maybe sometimes you know, being a teacher...”

And she added that none of boys had ever complained of ever being beaten.

This was the same in the case of the deceased teacher, she said, “I can’t be here to look at them.”

As for the former orphanage inhabitant who is a member of the disciplined services, she said, he did not have any contact with the two boys, while they were at the orphanage, since he was receiving training during the time they describe.

She also offered a different account of why the children’s mother, Sukoo, removed her sons from the orphanage. According to her, the woman took up residence with a new gentleman, who wanted the children.

“[What] mother would take their children out of a place with so much violence [and] would wait till now...”

Meanwhile, the new executive director of the Guyana United Sad’r Islamic Anjuman, Raheema Rahaman, assures that there are proper systems in place at the orphanage to ensure the safety of the boys and that they receive proper care.

The only form of discipline she said she aware of was scolding, which she said was no different from how any mother would manage her children.

Rahaman said she could not imagine the boys were beaten the way they described and said she was willing to look into what she called the ugly complaints. She said she is taking a personal interest in the allegations and is hopeful of meeting with the boys and their mother to address the accusations.

Abass says he still suffers from frequent headaches which he attributes to the numerous blows he suffered to the head, while his brother says he will never forget the beatings he received while at the orphanage.

Following the discovery of the body of a 14-year-old boy and the subsequent revelation that he was an orphan belonging to the institution, the Human Services Ministry launched a probe into the management of the orphanage.

Cases of child labour and child abuse were uncovered at the orphanage by the Ministry, which had been working to set up a committee to handle the affairs of the institution. The former acting Chief Executive Officer of the institution and another man stand jointly charged for the murder of the dead boy, Raheem Abdool.

GUSIA has however maintained that the institution is properly run and that claims of abuse and labour are untrue.