Child abandoned for three days back with mom
By Samantha Alleyne
Stabroek News
November 20, 2003
A year-old child who was left by her mother in a taxi three days ago was yesterday reunited with her after efforts by the Welfare Department to place her in a children's home got snagged in red tape.
Today, as the world celebrates Universal Children's Day, the infant has no permanent home and is perhaps hungry.
Little Lilly Annamae Jemella Wong has the eyes of an angel and when people make cooing sounds she laughs innocently, unaware of the turmoil in her life. Lilly had been travelling around Georgetown with her mother, who has no permanent place of abode. Her situation was brought to the attention of the authorities yesterday after the child was said to have been abandoned in a taxi on Sunday night and they promised to place her in a home. But by last night, she had returned to a life of instability.
A press release issued by the Government Information Agency (GINA) yesterday says that according to the Declaration on the Rights of the Child and the present convention: "the state should take all appropriate 'administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence ...maltreatment or exploitation'." Guy-ana ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in January 1991 and established a National Commission in March 1993, which has been promoting the rights of children countrywide, the release said. Lilly's story belies this.
It was on Sunday night that, according to reports, Lilly's mother left the child in a taxi she caught. Since that night one-year-old Lilly has been staying in the home of strangers in Sophia.
Yesterday morning Joy Rowley, who lives at the Sophia address, visited Stabroek News and reported that a baby girl had been abandoned in her husband's taxi on Sunday night. Following up this report brought to light the roller coaster ride that Lilly's life has been recently.
Rowley told Stabroek News that it was just before midnight on Sunday that her husband arrived home with the toddler and told her that the child's mother had abandoned her in the car.
According to Rowley, her husband said that the woman caught his taxi somewhere in Camp Street and requested to be taken to a Kitty location. On arrival at the location, the woman jumped out of the car and ran away leaving Lilly sitting on a travelling bag in the back seat of the car. The man told his wife that the woman left the car door open and after standing outside the car for a while he was forced to leave the area with the child and without being paid for the drop.
The man said that he then went to the Kitty Police Station where he reported the matter. However, officers, after taking the report reportedly told him that they could not keep the child at the station. He then took the child to his wife, Joy. Stabroek News attempted to confirm that the man had made a report at the Kitty station, but all efforts proved to be futile.
"When I see he with the child I ask he wey he get the child from and he tell me the story. I ask he if he report the matter and he tell me yes but I still quarrel with he and ask he how he go bring she home because it is really a police matter. But then I look at the lil God angel and I know I get five children and I ent go wan nobody to put dem out on the road in the night," the woman told Stabroek News.
The woman, who is employed at Brans Security, said that she was unable to get Monday or Tuesday off and as such the child remained with her for the two days. "How this child cry through the night, I couldn't sleep at all and then I have to wake up at 6:30 in the morning to go to work. You know I does be really tired."
Yesterday she asked her company for two hours off and after being advised to visit Stabroek News she did so bringing along the passport of the child's mother, which was found in the travelling bag that was left with the child. Also in the bag were other personal documents belonging to the woman, baby clothes, feed for the baby and soap powder among other things.
When Stabroek News visited Rowley's tiny one-bedroom home, Lilly, dressed in pampers, was sitting on a chair crying. After she was dressed and taken into a car by this reporter the child stopped crying and would laugh whenever attention was showered on her.
According to the documents in the bag, the child's mother is a teacher at a city school. A check at the school revealed that the woman had not showed up at work for the past three weeks. Her colleagues knew Lilly and some of them wept when they were told that the child had apparently been abandoned by the mother.
"She was always protective of Lilly and she would not want to leave her anywhere, but then we knew she was getting some problems," one teacher said.
A senior teacher at the school said that they knew the woman had problems because of her irregular attendance. "Some days she would come and you would not see her for the next three to four days," she said.
Some of the woman's colleagues said that they knew the woman had nowhere to live, as she would be staying at different locations from time to time.
One of the teachers begged Stabroek News and Rowley not to take the child to the Welfare Department of the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security as she said her colleague loved her child and would not have wilfully abandoned her.
It was this colleague who directed Stabroek News to the Antioch Play Group & Day Care Centre located at 541 Mandela Avenue, Tucville, where the child stayed while her mother worked.
On arrival there, the head of the centre, Wendy Garraway, greeted the child in a familiar way. Lilly responded by laughing and stretching her hands out to her. The other staff at the centre gathered around her when they heard of her plight. And the child immediately started to play with the other children as if she were at home.
Garraway told Stabroek News that the last time she saw the child was last Saturday when the mother visited the centre. She said prior to that the child had not been at the centre for three weeks. The woman said that the child's stay at the centre had been irregular as sometimes the mother had no money to pay the fee. And even when she could afford the fee, Garraway said, the child would go to the centre with hardly anything to eat.
Garraway said she knew the woman had housing problems as she used to change her address from time to time. "At one time I asked her where she was staying and she told me I did not want to know as she was staying at some hotel. Then another time she told me that some woman on the East Coast felt sorry for her and took her in."
On seeing the blue travelling bag that was left in the car the woman said that was the bag Lilly's mother always had in her possession since it contained most if not all of her worldly possessions.
She said the mother frequently travelled in taxis, but she knew sometimes she had no money to pay and she would wonder how she woman got by. At one time, Garraway said, she had suggested that Lilly be put up for adoption but the mother vehemently rejected the suggestion. She has another child, a two-year-old son, who lives with his father.
After leaving the daycare centre Stabroek News took the child to the Welfare Department of the Human Services Ministry and reported the incident to welfare officers. It was while an officer was taking a report that another officer heard the mother's name and explained that the woman had visited the office on Tuesday saying that her daughter had been kidnapped.
The officer said Lilly's mother told her that she had stopped the taxi and told the man she had nowhere to live. According to her, the man told her that he could take the child home to his wife, but he could not take her, the mother, because his wife might get upset. She said the man also told her he would have helped her to get a place to live and he gave her a number and his name. The name, which the mother had given to the officer was the name of Rowley's husband.
Another officer said that the child's mother was a regular visitor to the ministry as she always needed $500 and she had told them that she had nowhere to live. The child was at one time temporarily placed in a home, but her mother later removed her.
After a while, a senior welfare officer said that Lilly would be placed in the Red Cross Convalescent Home at D'Urban Backlands. When this reporter informed her that she had to return to work and Rowley told her she also had to do the same, the officer said someone would have to remain as the ministry did not have facilities for children and they had work to do.
Rowley's daughter, Samantha, remained at the ministry to care for the child with the understanding that the child would be taken to the home later in the afternoon.
However, Stabroek News later learnt that the child was back in Sophia with the family. Rowley's daughter said the welfare officers told her that they could not place the child in the home last evening and she must take the child home and return with her to the ministry today at 9:00 am. She said she was warned not to hand the child over to anyone.
However, Samantha told Stabroek News that shortly after she returned home with the child, her stepfather (Rowley's husband) arrived with Lilly's mother and the woman told her the same story that she had told the welfare officers.
So Lilly was reunited with her mother who has nowhere permanent to live.