NWRHA: Child abusers need our help too

Addressing the NWRHA’s seminar on sexual abuse in children for the Diego Martin and Petit Valley residents, at the parking lot of TTPost Diego Martin, Ursula Wilson said, “When one is found to be an abuser further investigation suggests that the abuser was also a victim of abuse. Hence the need to treat with the abuser.”

She said people cannot turn a blind eye to situations of abuse since they can return to haunt the society.

Wilson said, “due to the multiplier effect there will be more abusers in society providing abuse is left unchecked.”

She said when it was time for children to select a spouse there will be the propensity for them to choose an abuser. Wilson said, “There will be a strong probability of our grandchildren becoming victims and also abusers.”

She said the NWHRA recognised avenues for abusers within society to be detected “and given the appropriate care.”

Meanwhile, Gwendolyn Ross, a counsellor with the Rape Crisis Society (RCS) “begged” for additional funding to hire more staff and support its programmes. Ross was a member of a panel discussing sexual abuse in children at the NWRHA seminar.

In an interview at the Diego Martin Health Centre she told the media that the Society did not have a director. She said, “We don’t have money to pay a director, and the people who are working there now are not being paid, they are getting more a stipend than a salary.”

Ross said the RCS had two full-time (Port-of-Spain and San Fernando) and two part-time counsellors.

She said an attempt was being made to get a counsellor for Tobago but funding is needed. She noted that there was a high incidence of incest in Tobago.

Ross said the Society tries to raise funds with fund-raising activities but was still in need. The RCS office at Woodford Street, PoS, is not owned but rented. “We need our own place,” she said.