Help and Shelter
Editorial
Stabroek News
January 31, 2003
Last Tuesday we published the announcement from Help and Shelter that its refuge for abused women and children would be closed by the end of this month owing to lack of funding for its recurrent expenditure. Vice Chairman of the organization, Mr Vidyaratha Kissoon, told this newspaper that the monthly budget for maintaining the operations of the shelter totalled $347,000, and that some $8.5M would be required to keep it running over the next two years.
What has kept the shelter going this far is sustained assistance from entities like the Guyana Lottery Company, GUYSUCO, the Kayman Sankar Group, Banks DIH and the New Building Society. The organization has also made efforts to generate its own income in the form of fund-raising events, and a contract with Bounty Farms made possible by international assistance for rearing chickens and growing vegetables. These latter efforts notwithstanding, Help and Shelter said that there was still a “considerable gap between the income realised and the minimum possible monthly cost of running the shelter.”
One of the side effects of a shrinking economy, such as obtains at present, is that there is a good deal less money around than usual for operations of this kind. Even although businesses are under pressure, the claims on their altruism have nevertheless multiplied and the shelter has to compete for the limited financing available with a host of other good causes. And for those who wonder why international aid has not been forthcoming, Mr Kissoon explained that donor agencies preferred to fund projects rather than finance recurrent expenditure.
It was a huge step forward for this country when Help and Shelter first opened its doors as a sanctuary as well as a counselling and training centre for battered women and their children who had nowhere else to turn. While precise figures are not available, it is estimated that perhaps one in three women in this country experience physical violence at the hands of their partners - the incidence of other forms of abuse is even higher - while two years ago, women were being killed by their spouses or reputed spouses at an average rate of about one a month.
Women’s issues apart, these estimates, however crude, have a lot to say about the psychological health of families in this country. Children brought up in the shadow of an abusive father, even if they themselves are not physically mistreated, may very well become abusers themselves when they grow up, thereby transmitting the aberrant behaviour from one generation to the next. At the very least a violent home environment will cause trauma to the psyche of a child with all that that implies, and affect his or her ability to perform in school.
Leaving all other arguments aside for the moment, the authorities need to recognise that seriously dysfunctional families have an economic cost in every society, and that any organization devoted to addressing family issues in general, and domestic violence in particular, is worth an investment. In addition, it is unthinkable that we should be in a situation where for the lack of modest funding, a safe haven is denied some of the most vulnerable members of the community who have nowhere to go when they are in actual physical danger.
To its credit, the day after the report appeared, the Didco Trading Company came forward with an immediate donation of $341,000 to keep the shelter operational for a while longer. One can only hope that despite the difficult business climate, there are other companies which may be able to give something, however modest. In the end, however, the onus is on the Government, not commercial entitites to ensure that the shelter does not close.
Yesterday Dr Luncheon was reported as saying that Minister of Labour, Human Services and Social Security, Dr Dale Bisnauth had been mandated to draw up a plan for Cabinet “to have a truly comprehensive arrangement for supporting the victims of domestic violence.” This is good news. However, comprehensive plans by their very nature cannot be implemented immediately, and one hopes that encompassed within the Minister’s proposals will be interim measures which would allow the shelter to keep its doors open.
Help and Shelter itself has put forward the suggestion that the administration intervene to make further funding from the Guyana Lottery Company available to it. It is a suggestion certainly worthy of the Government’s consideration.
