For frustrated mothers:

JUST two days before the start of the new year, Jamaicans woke up to the news that yet another child had been abandoned by her mother, in conditions that made many question the strength of the motherly bond.

The two-year-old baby girl was found alone in an old animal shelter while her 19-year-old mother was allegedly busy preparing to attend the popular stage show, Sting.

The mother’s actions also brought into question the avenues available to women who feel overwhelmed with the task of raising their children, whether for lack of parental maturity or finances.

It’s a known fact that in some countries the state steps in to help, whether financially or with safe havens for abandoned children.

In the United States, a ‘Safe Haven’ law was passed in many states – from as early as 1999 in Texas. The law allows mothers who are unable to care for their babies to leave them at designated hospitals and other places without facing criminal charges.

In Jamaica, from indications on the surface, there seems to be similar options for mothers, though Children’s Advocate Mary Clarke says the intention is not to encourage mothers to choose this route.

Clarke says that while her administration does not want to encourage mothers to renounce their parental rights or to become irresponsible, it is best they turn the children over to the Child Development Agency (CDA) rather than neglect them.

Head of Missionaries of the Poor, Father Richard Ho Lung says he has seen a number of cases of child abandonment over the years, most notably of disabled children. In such cases, he says his organisation usually turns over the cases to the CDA which does its investigation. After all efforts to locate the mother fails, then some of the children – the majority being babies – are placed within shelters where they are taken care of.

Said Clarke: “We are asking the mothers to come in, whatever the problem is, come in, whether to the CDA or the Office of the Children’s Advocate and we will try to help them to find some solutions to their problems.”

Clarke also cited cases where her office had helped parents in dire situations to get on the poor relief programme, which she says is one alternative. She also encouraged those who are unable to provide for their children financially to get on the PATH programme, even while acknowledging that not everyone would be qualified to do so.

For those who do may not be able to go to the CDA, Clarke’s advice is to seek help from a social institution in their community.

“There are so many NGOs dealing with children. They can take them to a church. We have more churches in Jamaica than anywhere else in the world; why not take the child to the church or the community centre if there is one? We are not preaching abandonment at all, what we want to do is to seek help for the children,” she said.

Under Jamaican law, it is the responsibility of these institutions to contact the CDA which would do a social enquiry report and present the case for the child to appear before a judge. The judge would then grant a Fit Person Order so that the child can formally be placed in a children’s home or in foster care.

Attorney-at-law in the Office of the Children’s Advocate, Lois Nelson, says the fact that a mother may be unable to provide for her child financially and has to hand them over to the CDA for help, does not mean that she has revoked her rights to be a parent. This, she says, means that the mother can ask to have her child back when she feels she is capable of taking care of him/her.

“The only time the mother does not have a right to her child is when the court finds her unfit to be a mother or if she has been incarcerated, in which case she can appoint another guardian for her child while she does her time,” Nelson explained.

Nelson says that if for some reason the parent cannot take the child to the CDA, then they could take the baby to the nearest police station so that they can receive some form of assistance.

Provided that the child was not harmed in any way, the parent cannot be charged. If, however, the parent leaves the child at the station without speaking to a police officer or leaving contact details, then that would have amounted to neglect. In this case, the parent can be charged under the Child Care and Protection Act, Nelson said.

When contacted, an officer at the Half-Way-Tree Police Station advised that the parent should try their hardest to take the child directly to the CDA instead of to the police.

“The only time the police gets involved with any child is if they are in need of care and protection. It [should not be] a voluntary thing where a woman could just come in and give up the child because she can’t take care of it,” the officer said.

Clarke says if it is a case where the father is not helping to take care of the child, it is the mother’s responsibility to take him before the courts for child maintenance. This she says will help to reduce the mother’s need to abandon her child.