VIBHA VERMA
ASSAGAO: The recent issue of the statutory rape charges filed against a staffer of a Charity home Light House, the lax supervision of the authorities in general has highlighted the way many homes looking after children in need of care are run in the State. There is a need for homes, no doubt but as the infamous paedophile Freddy Peats showed us so many years back and this latest incident shows that there is a need for better supervision and policing in this area.
Herald spoke to Mathew Kurian – managing trustee at El-Shaddai Charitable Trust, where the project managers of the Light House charity who have fled to England after the incident, initially worked as volunteers.
Q) Many shelter homes/ children homes are running without government registration or any other licenses!
A) The government needs to be proactive and nail the unregistered ones. They have to register the homes, and have inspection teams in place. There is a great need for shelter homes in Goa because 35 percent of population is migrants and majority from this are deprived and disturbed.
Q) Did you know the foreign couple Graham and Tricia Philip Clarke running Light House children’s home at Thivim?
A) They initially came as volunteers at El-Shaddai Charitable Trust and later parted ways to start their own NGO. They tried to do something that they were not able to, though they are good people. They later realized their mistakes, they were stressed and wanted to get out of it. They had once spoken to me about handing over the Light House to El-Shaddai, which I had agreed to. But the rape incident then surfaced in the children’s home. The couple bought this to our notice and soon my project SCAN-India was roped-in. I suggested the matter be reported to the police, which they did. They left India, for their daughter’s wedding but it was a bad time to go. They might have done some mistakes in their journey here.
Q) Twenty-seven of 32 children were admitted to your institution. Did you inform the local authorities?
A) Parents of these children sought admission, which we did. The children at Light House were studying at our school – Shanti Niketan because of which we knew all well. No, I did not inform because I don’t need to as we are not associated with Light House. I took the children not as from the Home but children who are in need of care and protection. We are here to help the needy children.
