Three days after a fire destroyed much of the privately-run Hope Children’s Home at Enmore, East Coast Demerara, the displaced children have been accommodated among state-run facilities while staff continue to provide care as they await plans for rebuilding.
Kiskadee Watch has been informed that 19 of the home’s 33 children have been placed at the Mahaica Children’s Home, while 11 are being accommodated at the Sophia Children’s Home. Two young adults who had aged out of the childcare system but had continued living at the facility have been relocated to the Cheshire Home.
Sources told this publication that the separation has been emotionally difficult for both the children and caregivers.
“It is very hard to see the children being separated. Life is already difficult for them because they were in a home, but now they had to be separated. Even some siblings had to be separated. It was really sad,” one source said.
According to sources, staff members from the Hope Children’s Home are travelling daily between the Mahaica and Sophia facilities to continue caring for the children.
“They are the ones the children are familiar with and they don’t want further trauma to occur by having new persons to deal with them,” another source explained.
The two children who had been admitted to hospital following the fire have since been discharged and taken to the Sophia Children’s Home.
Sources also provided further details on the frantic evacuation as the blaze spread through the building last Friday.
While most of the children were attending a Vacation Bible School programme in the church on the compound when the fire broke out, at least two children were being bathed at the rear of the building.
“They were at the back of the building and the staff had to break down the gate to get them out from there. If you see the poor children run out with no clothes,” one source said.
The source added that the fire spread rapidly after igniting the mattresses in the boys’ dormitory, which was destroyed in the blaze.
“By the time I hear ‘fire, fire’ and run out, the whole place was smoke. I couldn’t do nothing. It was just like I get confused. I would never like to experience something like this ever again. It was just so sad,” a staff member said while recounting the ordeal.
When Kiskadee Watch visited the scene on Friday, many of the children and staff members were visibly distressed as they watched the building burn. Representatives of the home’s overseas sponsors, who were in Guyana conducting the Vacation Bible School programme, were also at the scene and witnessed the destruction.
It remains unclear when reconstruction of the facility will begin, but staff members expressed the hope that the children will eventually be reunited under one roof.
The fire broke out at about 11 am on Friday in the boys’ dormitory and quickly spread through sections of the home and the adjoining church. All 33 children were safely evacuated.
According to the Guyana Fire Service, two children and one caregiver sustained minor injuries during the evacuation. One child suffered a fractured hand and possible smoke inhalation, another was treated for shock, while the caregiver sustained a laceration.
Director of the Hope Children’s Home, Kenneth Finlayson had told Kiskadee Watch that the children were attending classes as part of the Vacation Bible School when he was alerted to the fire. He said he immediately disconnected the building’s electricity and instructed staff and teachers to evacuate the children before attempting to extinguish the blaze.
Human Services and Social Security Minister Dr Vindhya Persaud subsequently said the children would be temporarily accommodated at state facilities while trauma counselling and other support services were provided.
The Guyana Fire Service has not yet determined the cause of the blaze and investigations are continuing.
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