Pickney Project Report for the Month of the November 2008 Summary In the month of November, the Pickney Project sought to do follow up on the workshops held in the month of October (20 25) with the objective of ensuring that as many persons as possible become aware of their child protection duties and become better parents. Churches and parents consented to cascade the parenting skills education to their following. Once dates were set, the necessary logistical arrangements were put in place by the Project to ensure these sessions were possible. Some of the faiths have already done their initial sessions and the projected outcome of twining churches has yielded the desired result. According to reports from Faith Organizations One hundred and twenty two persons have received the information on child protection, abuse and better parenting skills. It is worthy to note that the Parents and Community leaders who have been trained have begun to cascade through formal and informal sessions. Three formal sessions have been held by parents. It was noticeable through cascading sessions that single parent s capacity needs building to deal with their children especially boys. Also that in homes where children are abused, the parent/child relationship is weak at best and at worst nonexistent. Finally, in the Sophia community transference is a major cause of abuse especially where the one parent mostly the father is absent. To date one thousand toward better parenting flyers have been distributed. The project coordinator was present at the cascading sessions. Details The Faiths that have done their cascading sessions are verified by the following table. SER. CHURCH. Judah Assembles of God 2. House of Israel 3. Full Gospel Church 4. Freedom Ministries Inc. 5. Sophia Presbyterian Church 6. Heavenly Light 7. Prophecy One Ministries Done To Do Commen ts
8. True Warriors of God Church 9 Heavenly Jubilee Mission. Church 0. Love and Faith Ministries. Church of Christ 2. Guyana Rastafarian Council The Judah Assembles of God Church The Judah Assemblies of God Church s cascading session was held at its meeting place in C field Sophia. The training received at the faith leader s workshop was cascaded to about eighteen persons. This was a highly participatory session. There were a number of teachers present and they were among the most vociferous. It was discovered that the fact that they were beaten by their parents strongly impacted their parenting approaches. However, for the most part, licks was all that was tried before the advent of the Pickney Project. Parents affirmed that with a new methodology in hand they felt empowered. Many were curious to see how their children, who previously only responded to licks and shouting, would respond to this new parenting styles. Each was given five flyers to cascade this training to at least five other persons. One person who was visiting from Port Kaituma attended the session and was also given flyers. She was delighted to have these materials which she pledge to facsimile and share. This session was facilitated by Pastor Romeo Pereira and Sister Onika Hackette. Freedom Ministries Inc. The Freedom Ministries Inc. is pastored by Ms. Karen Moore. The church s cascading session was held at its place of worship, A field Sophia on November 6, 2008 at 0:00 hours. It saw twenty one attendees receiving capacity building in the areas of child protection and abuse (good parenting). The session was highly participatory and the audience showed an insatiable desire for more of these sessions. The Jubilee Mission Church has planned their second cascading session in collaboration with Freedom Ministries Inc. Among the issues identified is that parents abuse their children in an effort to train them well. Also the faith has played a role in perpetuating abuse by misinterpretation of the Holy Scriptures on discipline of children. The session was effective in securing commitment from all to try the new and better method of parenting. The inclement weather prevented the Sister Church of Freedom Ministries Inc., at Blairmont, from attending this session.
Guyana Rastafarian Council Also on the 6 th of November, 2008 Ras Ian sought to cascade child protection learning to the Guyana Rastafarian Council. This session was held in Albouystown, the Council s regular meeting place. The rationale for involving the Rastafarian Council is that a number of individuals in the Sophia community are of the Rastafarian faith, worshippers of his imperial majesty Haile Silassie. The followers of the faith may be more receptive if the learning is taught to them by their leaders. The session was very unique but well organized. The principles of child protection and abuse were given serious thought and scrutiny. The Project co ordinator was very satisfied that there was a clear understanding of the necessary concepts and that the participants were given new tools to work with. One hundred flyers were divided among participants. Participants were asked to further share this information with as many persons as possible in the Rastafarian faith. Heavenly Jubilee Mission Church The Heavenly Jubilee Mission Church, D field, shepherded by Pastor Steve Belle, was the first to conduct its cascading session on the 7 th Novemebr 2008. Members from a sister church, Agape Assemblies of God Church, from LaGrange West Bank Demerara, were in attendance. Five core areas of the workshop was shared, why children get licks, the real reason why children get licks, alternative methods of discipline, DOs and DON Ts of parenting and Self Esteem. The common issue of the prevalence of abuse in the Sophia community was raised hence their comments on the timeliness of the project. A few abused cases were identified for immediate intervention. However participants were very reluctant to share the contact details of persons since they were pickled by irresponsible interference by other projects. Participants showed a desire for urgent follow up sessions and ask that time be not a factor. Follow up sessions will be held in collaboration with Freedom Ministry Inc. Heavenly Jubilee Mission Church has planned a convention on November 30, 2008 with a few other churches. It has offered the Project time on the program to speak on child protection. Prophesy One Ministries The Prophesy one Ministry is not located in the Sophia community but there are a number of its members who are living in the Sophia. It was deemed important that the leadership of the church be oriented to the tenets of child protection. In the absence of this awareness, the followers could be dissuaded by the cultural and scriptural norms that advocate licks as a necessity in child rearing. The cascading session at this church was held from 7:00 20:00 hours, on Tuesday 25 th November, 2008. Twenty three persons were in attendance including the two Pastors of the church Shaundell and Alwin Williams. This session was supported by Love and Faith outreach Ministries. As in most of the cascading sessions there was an overwhelming presence of women. This session
was very well organized and executed. The teachers present spoke of the difficulty experienced in schools when using alternative methods of discipline. One of the most vociferous participants spoke of the importance of carrying out the biblical mandate to spare not the rod and spoil the child. This was beautifully addressed by another participant in saying that the rod was a tool of guidance and alignment for sheep and not to hurt or harm them. The issues were similar to those raised by other churches but the impact was very telling. A number of parenting approaches were derailed and the call to parent without abuse and to share the information was shrill. True Warriors of God Church The True warriors of God Church, shepherded by Pastor Otello Periera was the most recent to have cascaded the child protection and parenting information to its followers. The session was planned in collaboration with the church s Harvest Time service. However adequate time was given to the facilitators to share and answer questions. This session was facilitated by one of the volunteers on the Project and the general Secretary of the church. The issues were similar to those mentioned in the forgoing comments. Other Results The Pickney Project supported the National Children s Conference held at the convention centre on November 4 & 5, 2008. Seven children from the project performed a drama Look how we living. This piece was a point discussion at the period when performances were scrutinized for lessons. Efforts to meet the Officers in charge of the Sophia and Sparendaam stations proved futile. The project coordinator took the initiative to write them. The project has secured three spaces from which the child care counselor will work on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, Sophia Special School, Sophia Primary School and Pattensen Community Centre respectively. However, the community centre will be furnished as the child friendly space. Qualitative Analysis Firstly a number of individuals are reached through information shared at Cascading sessions or indirectly with the flyers. However there are many more persons who are reached by the flyers than those by the sessions directly. It is therefore crucial that the necessary areas should be given due attention and materials should be developed on those areas. There has been a fair representation of all the fields in the sessions. However there is still a challenge to secure the participation of North Sophia though they are invited. Maybe the project can take one of its major activities to the area.
Secondly there is gender imbalance among participants in project activities (Workshops, Cascading sessions). Women are always in the overwhelming majority and a great percentage of them head households. It is a noticeable challenge that women who head households have difficulty parenting boys even from an early age. This may be a macrocosm of the lack of parenting skills so starkly evident in the Sophia community. As persons are exposed to new parenting approaches they are often eager to have direct and individualized psychosocial support for their family and children. These are referred to the Child Care Counselor of the project. The Way forward. A child protection workshop is planned for Teachers of Schools and Day Care Centres from December 5, 2008 at Mercy Wings Vocational and Day Care Centre. This workshop will engage three school and four Day Care Centres and will cater for twenty five participants. Teachers will be tasked with wording the Pickney Project bill board and deciding on what will be the areas for the preparation of flyers. The Project will seek to mount its bill board before December 3, 2008.