Storybook and colouring book launched by Human Services Ministry

With the primary objective of making conversations on child abuse easier between adults and
children, the Human Services and Social Security Ministry this week launched two new books –
a story book and colouring book – that seek to effectively open the way for certain touchy
subjects to be discussed.
Minister Dr. Vindhya Persaud, in gibving an insight for the ideas for the books, took into account
that it is not always easy for adults to explain matters related to child abuse. The books were
launched under her Ministry’s ‘Every Child Safe’ campaign that started earlier this year. “The
books are a comfortable way of opening up conversations between an adult and child so that they
can address child abuse. It can be quite an uncomfortable subject for the adult to discuss with the
child but this colouring book gives the opening and guides the adult on how to explain in a very
meaningful way,” the minister explained.

The intention is also for children to be educated on the subject and to know what to do in the
event they are being abused. For instance, the books prominently feature the Ministry’s hotline
numbers that they can use to get help. “This is an important component to the campaign where
our facilitators will go into communities and work with people. It’s a very action-oriented
campaign, so they will now have colouring books and story books for children that will educate
them in a very sensitive and age appropriate way on child abuse,” Minister Persaud further
explained. In addition to the books being used by the Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA) –
the entity that is spearheading the campaign – they will also be given to the Ministry of
Education for use however the officers there see fit. The minister disclosed that funding for this
project was provided through the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Ministry
wants to thank the organisation for that.
She stressed that the storybook is a compilation of stories that came out of the Short Story
Writing Competition for young writers. The stories of the ten winners, which were focused on
various elements of child safety, were compiled. “The colouring book was a project I worked on
with my team members and it is also activity based so that children can definitely have insight
into child abuse,” the minister said.   The Minister noted that under ‘Every Child Safe’, more is
done than just seek to make information available to the public; a personal and consistent check-
in with members of communities all across Guyana is carried out for help to identify perpetrators
and bring relief to sufferers. “These communities become essential partners of ours, so that
wherever child abuse rears its ugly head, we will be able to know because there are people out
there as our eyes and ears. Perpetrators will have the eyes of an entire community on them, so no
one can escape that kind of scrutiny,” she declared.
The human services and social security minister said that the project fosters heightened vigilance
on child abuse in communities and people will now be more aware of crimes that they should
look out for and how they should report cases of child abuse utilising the 914 hotline and all the
other avenues available to them through the Ministry. Dr. Persaud added that the 10 persons who
won in the competition are Aradhya Ramjag (Aaila Runs Away); Daniel Persaud (Quick
Thinking); Rondel Parks (Annie Calls 914); Vanessa Ramdehooll (Puppy Love); Daniel
Lalchand (Early Morning Scare); Sajid Amin (Praying for a Miracle); Giovanna George

(Tickling Tommy); Rachel Davis (Fire, Fire!) Roshanie Mahadeo (The Black Coat); and
Shaquana Richards (Veronica’s Father).