Concerned grandparents have been reaching out to the Faith Marshall-Harris (FM-H) Sandy Lane Charitable Trust Children's Helpline.
Mrs. Faith Marshall-Harris, Child Rights Advocate and Founder of the 24-hour hotline which seeks to deliver direct help to children, said that a lot of calls received by social workers manning the phone lines have been coming from grandparents reporting situations of abuse and neglect.
“The grandparents are often telling us about the abuse that their grandchildren suffer. And the fact that quite often, we have to fight for the betterment of the child sometimes against parents.
“And our legislation is dealing with particular status – but we ought to address it because more often than not, the calls that we get is where the grandparent is actually raising the child or has raised the child for a considerable time, but they don't have sometimes the legal status to insist that the child is being neglected; the child is not getting proper food – so they need to have some sort of status,” she stressed.
Mrs. Marshall – Harris, Vice Chair of the UN Committee on Rights of the Child (CRC) was at the time speaking to the media on the sidelines of a ceremony to recognize the generous donors and committed volunteers who kept the initiative going during this difficult period.
The Helpline officially launched in April 2019 went full speed ahead not only answering calls, but providing programmes, such as Camp Inspire, aimed at mentoring at-risk youth, but the pandemic intervened.
Despite admitting they were running low on funding, Sandy Lane Charitable Trust still came through for the Helpline, Mrs. Marshall-Harris said.
“The Sandy Lane Charitable Trust came back to me and said they really don't have a lot of money, but they have to do something for the Helpline. The Trust said they have been helping with children’s material needs; feeding, etc., but the point is that the mental health of children is also extremely important to survive this pandemic … The Trust also said, 'We wouldn’t necessarily be able to meet all things you would like to do this year, but whatever we can manage we will manage'. I am extremely grateful; in fact, I have been impressed by their approach”.
She also expressed appreciation to individual donors Diane and Richard Edgehill; Hazel and Mark Norville; Dr. Glenford Howe; Richard Goddard, as well as to the volunteers from the Barbados Association of Professional Social Workers.
Mrs. Marshall-Harris said that the social workers, despite their own challenges, listened to callers and offered solutions.
“The Helpline operates as a 24-hour service where children, parents, guardians, grandparents, neighbours can ring the social workers, there are almost 30 who are all members of the Barbados Association of Professional Social Workers.”
“They endeavour to answer those calls and provide online counselling when they can, and if not, they refer what they've heard to competent authorities such as Child Care Board, Welfare Office, UDC, RDC, Child Guidance clinic – all those agencies that can do more for them and look at their specific problems. The social workers are the ones who literally man the operation on a day-to-day basis – they're the engine room really of what we do,” she said. (TL)