Family Services asks parents not to leave children alone

On Tuesday a one and a half year old child drowned in a bucket of water at his home on Faber’s Road. His mother had left him home alone with a three-year-old sibling because she had to leave for work. She told police she had asked a neighbor to watch the children until one of her relatives arrived. According to neighbors, the boys were unsupervised for at least two hours. The police have concluded their investigation and forwarded their findings to the Director of Public Prosecutions for possible action. Director of the Family Services Division of the Ministry of Human Development, Roy Bowen says incidents like this are all too frequent, and such scenarios are typical. His office has seen an increase in reports of children being left at home and investigations generally show that the parents were at work, or had gone to look for work or food. Bowen says parents need to remember that simply telling a young child to sit and wait until the adult comes back is unrealistic. Kids are curious and will get into trouble and they should never be left in the care of other children. He says a common practice is also to lock the children in the house so they won’t wander into the street, but if there is a fire this can be deadly. If a parent is found to be negligent the Family Services Division will step in to see what can be done to ensure the safety of the children. Although their policy is to try and keep families together, if they determine there is a grave threat to a child, he or she can be removed and placed with relatives, or in extreme cases, foster care. The division offers parenting class for those who have had problems in the past, and encourages schools to do the same since public education is crucial. Currently there are eight case workers in Belize City, but they average thirty cases each and cannot respond as fast as they would like to all the reports made by the public. Bowen says in the first four months of 1999 they received more reports about abuse and neglect than in all of 1998 and the calls keep coming in.