A day after the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security placed three of the five children, who have been begging on the streets of Alberttown, at the Drop-in Centre, they were back to their old ways.
The children, Leroy, Brandon and Anthony were all found in First Street yesterday afternoon, near to where they live with their father, and begging residents for food and money.
The three children walked from the centre's Hadfield Street location barefoot and when Stabroek News saw them yesterday afternoon they were all shirtless.
Their parents, Desmond Moore and Claire Ramdat, were not alerted to the children leaving the centre at the time this newspaper visited the area. Stabroek News understands that the probation officers had picked up the children sometime on Thursday.
"There is hope for the five children of the Moore family who recently caught the attention of the nation via the newspapers," a Government Information Agency (GINA) release announced yesterday afternoon.
The release said that while the three older boys were placed temporarily at the centre, the two younger siblings, Albert and Demi are housed at the Joshua House. According to the release the ministry is trying not to separate the children, which is the reason for the temporary accommodation.
"In the meantime, counselling continues with the children's parents. Their mother will be visiting them regularly while they are at these institutions," the release said.
The release also stated that a woman who offered her assistance to the children would be allowed to visit them. She had visited the rundown home after she had read about the children's plight in this newspaper on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, some residents of the Alberttown area are miffed at the GINA release issued on Tuesday in which Minister of Labour, Human Services and Social Security, Bibi Shadick condemned the residents for not looking out for the children.
The residents said they have assisted the children the best way they could, adding that on numerous occasions they had alerted the ministry.
They said the supposed year of work by the ministry with the family had changed nothing.
"First of all that place where the children living is not healthy and even after the ministry was notified the children remained there. The parents are not fit; if they were, the children would not have been roaming the streets daily. Those children need to be taken out of that situation and placed where they can be looked after properly, we cannot do that, we have done all that we could," said one resident who contacted this newspaper.
The resident was also peeved at the fact that the release reported the minister as stating that the children go to school and that they are only out because the holidays are here.
According to the resident this is simply not true and the parents admitted this to the newspaper. The resident said many people helped the children get ready for St Ambrose Primary School. The residents even assisted with meals for the children. But as time went by the children dropped out and were allowed to roam the streets freely with no parental supervision.
Another resident told this newspaper of the children being punished if they did not fetch water for their father's bath and wash his clothing.
"In this community everybody has done their part, sometimes we would bath and comb that little girl's hair, but we cannot do it all. We have other things to do, we have our families to take care of," another resident said.
They told of even contacting the police on some occasions in an effort to get the children off the street but all their attempts proved to be futile.
The children's mother has two younger children while the father has five others, four of whom are as young as the ones he has with his now divorced wife.