| …to help tackle underage pregnancy “We have got to get that special unit. This 72 hours of holding men and then letting them go has got to stop…That is outrageous.” – Ann Greene“I am prepared to hold parents responsible, but we have got to get the police more involved,Wholesale NFL Jerseys,” says Director of the Child Care and Protection Agency (CC&PA), Ann Greene. She was at the time making reference to the issue of underage pregnancy.CC&PA Director,Ann GreeneGreene,Cheap NBA Gear, moreover, stressed the need for the setting up of a Special Victims Unit (SVU). With an SVU in place, she is convinced that such issues will be more efficiently tackled. This is in light of her belief that the police force is snowed under by crime.Ahead of being elected to office in May, A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) had spoken of the need to implement an SVU to help tackle domestic violence. But Greene is convinced that underage pregnancy should also be included.“We have got to get that special unit. This 72 hours of holding men and then letting them go has got to stop…That is outrageous,” said Greene. She expressed concern about the older men who have impregnated girls below the legally acceptable age.According to her, “Every time that a child under 16 is pregnant, it is a crime. We have to find the person who has impregnated her.” And Greene speculated, too, that a lot of the time parents are culpable. “Sometimes they know of things and they ignore them; some have even benefited from their girls being involved with older people and all of that. So every time it has to be investigated,” said Greene, of underage pregnancy.She noted that based on the Child Protection Act, parents could be held accountable.“Parents have a responsibility…If their underage girl child is pregnant a crime has been committed.“They have to keep them from harm and abuse… so parents who are running away and leaving their children, or are allowing those who are underage to go and live with older men…they could be charged for exposing their child to exploitation and abuse, because our law clearly says that a child cannot give consent for sex if she is under 16,” Greene emphasised.The CC&PA Director also commented on the case involving 17-year-old Nikacia Allen. The teenager succumbed at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation last month after delivering her third child via Caesarean Section.In addition to her newborn girl, Allen had given birth to two other girls,Wholesale Jerseys, one just over four years old and another aged two plus, also by Caesarean Section.According to Greene,Air Max Shop Italia, CC&PA had launched an investigation into the case given the fact that the now dead teenager would have been impregnated while she was yet underage.Greene said that she was alarmed by the reports of the young mother. In fact she disclosed that she had immediately instructed her officers to check on the matter.“I had read in one of the newspapers that she had spoken with a Welfare Officer. There are Welfare Officers at the Georgetown Public Hospital, and I wonder who the Welfare Officer is, because I personally cannot remember dealing with such an issue.“I am asking my staff to check on it to see our records if we had any reports,Cheap Jerseys Wholesale,” Greene said.But even then she asserted that the CC&PA cannot work in isolation.“What normally happens is that the (Ministry of) Health people would report to us; we have got to get the information. So this child protection is a shared responsibility; everybody has to take responsibility and all the systems must work and that is the only way that we can share collective responsibility for children to get the holistic care…”“There has to be a lot of referrals. We must know if one area dealt with a child like that; it must be referred…so we have to check if all of the systems were working,” Greene explained.She disclosed, too,Authentic Nike NBA Jerseys, that all of the matters of underage pregnancy that gain the attention of the CC&PA are always reported to the Police Force.“If a child under the age of 16 is in sexual relationships or even if she gets pregnant – and that is a sure sign that she was having sexual relationships – a crime has been committed, the police have to get involved. Any report of sexual abuse of a child, we call in the police,” the CC&PA Director stated.While she admitted that Allen’s case was one that was reported to the Agency, she disclosed that investigations involving all of the related agencies are ongoing.“We are looking to see where any gaps might have occurred and we definitely have to step up our collaborations, and we are working towards that,” Greene insisted.However, it is still not clear whether the conclusion of the investigation will yield any prosecution. Greene intimated that “this matter is a little technical because in this case, the victim is dead, but once we find that this matter was reported to us, we are obligated to report it to the police so that they can investigate it.” |
