Desmond Moore, the father of the five children who are neglected during the day and are found begging on the streets of Alberttown, last evening said that he loves his children and wants to have them close to him but he is unable to adequately provide for them.
The man, who lives in the dilapidated house at Lot 8 First Street, Alberttown with three of his five children, says that he is forced to leave early in the morning to work as a minibus conductor and the children are left unattended during the day until he returns home in the night.
Their mother, Claire Ramdat, who lives with someone else at another location and also has two other daughters, would visit them during the day and would sometimes take food for them and wash their clothing.
The couple have five children, Leroy, 10, Brandon, 9, Anthony, 7, Albert, 6, and Demi, the only girl, 4. The three eldest boys live with their father permanently while Albert and Demi are shuttled between the two homes.
Yesterday's Stabroek News highlighted the plight of the children on its front page and since then Moore said a woman has approached him and has offered to keep the children during the day while he is at work. He said the woman, who lives in the city, reported that on reading the story her heart went out to the children and she wanted to assist with their upbringing.
The man vowed that with help he would ensure that the boys attend the school. The man admitted that when the children are left alone they roam the streets begging persons for money and food, but added that he has to work to provide for them regardless of how meagre it is. "If I stay home and look at dem whole day we would deh worse dan how we deh..."
Moore denied that he removed the children from the home they were placed in temporarily without the consent of the relevant authorities. The man said that the head of the schools welfare department, who had assisted him in placing the children at the city home, had advised him to take the children out of the home so they could attend school. The official had also assisted him in placing the children in school and according to the man the official is still in possession of the children's birth certificates.
He related that when his ex-wife was told to visit the Ministry of Human Services & Social Security probation department by this newspaper, he went with her on the second occasion with all the children. However, the authorities said they were unable to place them in a home right away. He said they were told to return and they did, but to no avail. On Monday the mother returned again but the authorities have not found a home for them as yet.
Stabroek News had been told by the Chief Probation and Family Welfare Officer Ann Greene, who had berated this newspaper for placing the photographs of vulnerable children on its front page, that the children had no birth certificates and clinic cards and as such they could not be placed in a home.
However, the father pointed out that the children used to attend school and they had needed birth certificates to enable this.
Moore said if he could get help to repair the house he would be able to keep his children with the help of the benevolent woman. However, he is not against them being placed in a home once their living standards are improved and he would be able to visit them from time to time.
"My sister and brother outside promise to help look after the house but if I could get more help I would glad..." the father told Stabroek News.
Meanwhile in a Govern-ment Information Agency (GINA) release, Minister of Labour, Human Services & Social Security, Bibi Shadick said her probation department has been working with the couple for one year now. Shadick condemned this newspaper's report likening it to "reckless endangerment" and calling for the newspaper to apologise.
The GINA report stated that this newspaper said that the children were abandoned by their parents and left to fend for themselves. The Stabroek News report had said that the children are neglected during the day and are found begging on the streets.
Shadick said that she was disappointed with "the general behaviour of the Stabroek News because this not the first such article they have published."
According to her, yesterday's report goes against the work of her ministry to protect children in society, adding that they are presently intervening into the situation of the parents. The ministry had not been in contact with the parents for sometime and it was only after calls by this newspaper that Greene asked that the mother report to the ministry two Fridays ago.
The release also stated that the children are enrolled and attend school and are only out because school has closed for the August holiday. However, both parents have told this newspaper that the children were placed in the school but had stopped going because they were unable to prepare and send them off in the mornings.
The release said Greene said she cautioned this reporter not to publish the photograph of the children and the minister said such irresponsible journalism by this newspaper "can now snare the lives of these children who are minors and whose photograph should not be published in the first place."
Shadick said her ministry is not interested in exposing people's poverty but interested in helping them to get out of that state and she also condemned the actions of members of the community to which these children belong adding that the protection and welfare of children is everybody's business.
The Editor of Stabroek News, Anand Persaud, last evening expressed surprise at Shadick's statement. He said the newspaper had nothing to apologise for as it was doing a service to the family and public in reporting the plight of the children. He said it was mind-boggling that Shadick would suggest that the report would endanger the children when all of them - including a four-year-old girl - had been facing perilous situations each day they were forced to go and beg for sustenance and help. He said if the ministry had been working with the family for more than a year now and the children were still in this poor condition it meant that the ministry needed to revamp the way it went about helping these families. He added that the newspaper's reportage on vulnerable families was intended to ensure that they received the help that they needed and to alert Shadick's ministry to these situations. He noted that often Shadick's ministry was unaware of these families as with the case of the children who had been left alone recently at Vive La Force and who were only helped after the newspaper had reported on them.