Chief welfare officer heads probe into ministry's handling of abandoned child
By Samantha Alleyne
Stabroek News
November 25, 2003
Chief Probation and Family Welfare Officer, Ann Green, is heading an investigation into how a one-year-old child, who was left with strangers by her mother, was reportedly sent back to the strangers' home by probation and welfare officers.
Minister in the Ministry of Human Services & Social Security, Bibi Shadick, who was out of the country at the time of the incident on Wednesday, said yesterday that the investigation had been launched and that Green, who was also out of office last week, was heading the investigative team.
Meanwhile, the minister said that the child's mother has since said that she has found somewhere to live and as a result the ministry had no intention of taking the child away. She noted that ultimately a child belonged with his or her parents. "We are not going to take her child away from her. We have no evidence that she is an unfit mother. It is obvious that she loves her child and we can't just take her child away from her."
Last Wednesday a woman reported to Stabroek News that the child, Lilly Annamae Jemella Wong, had been abandoned in her husband's car. The child stayed with her for three days but she could not afford to keep the child any longer as she had five children of her own.
Stabroek News attempted to locate the mother by visiting her place of employment, a city school, but was told that she had not reported for work in three weeks. Her colleagues said she seemed to be having housing problems. The child was then taken to the ministry where it was learnt that the mother, who was said to be a regular visitor, had visited the ministry just the day before and had reported that a taxi driver had kidnapped her child.
She said she had left the child with the driver but that he had given her a wrong contact number.
A senior officer had told Stabroek News on Wednesday that efforts were being made to get the child into the Red Cross Con-valescent Home at D'Urban Backlands and that a letter was being typed to this effect.
However, it was later learnt that the child was sent back to the woman's Sophia home with officers instructing the woman's daughter to return the child the following day. It was while the child was at the Sophia residence that her mother went to pick her up.
Shadick said yesterday that the fact that the child was returned to the home of the strangers was one of the issues high on the agenda for investigation. She told Stabroek News that during an initial briefing of the situation she was told by the senior officer in charge that she had left a junior officer to type out the letter and see that the child was taken to the home.
The minister said that this junior officer had since reported that while the woman's daughter was waiting with the little girl at the ministry she had told them that she had to leave to pick up her child from a nursery school. But she was made to remain at the ministry to look after the child since the officers said they had no accommodation for children.
Shadick said the junior officer further reported that she had left to tell the senior officer of the girl's impending departure and upon her return the girl had left with the child.
However the woman's daughter, Samantha, has a different story. She reported that she was told the child could not have been placed in the home that night and that she should take the child home and return with her the following morning.
Shadick said that on Thursday morning the child's mother had visited the ministry and reported that she had the child and that she had found somewhere to live.
She also reported that she had told the taxi driver she had been put out and that he had offered to keep the child for the night. After she could not get in contact with him by telephone she reported the matter to the Kitty Police Station and with their help and the car number, which she provided, she was able to locate him and later her child.
On the same morning the woman had visited this newspaper and admitted that she had not known the man prior to leaving her daughter with him. Shadick said the ministry would also be investigating the woman's circumstances and if it was found that she still did not have a stable home for the child she would receive counselling.
The minister said that after counselling and if the home environment was indeed unfit they would convince her to let them place the child in a home temporarily where she could visit her until she sorted out her accommodation.
The woman has been visiting the ministry for the past two years seeking assistance previously for her son, who is now with his father, and later her daughter.