St. Maarten Private Eye

Safe Haven II

Well, it's becoming clearer that the turmoil at Safe Haven is certainly a witch hunt of sorts. It turns out that the "New Board" voted themselves into office in Liesa Euton's absence, very fishy. Instead of a board that has its focus on supplying the resources the director of the home needs and dealing with government in regards to legislation there is a now a board that wants to micro manage the home.

Yes the director is appointed by the board but this board seems to be meddling in the day to day running of the home. The story that the Daily Herald refers to (April 9th) is about a 19 year old mother of two who had outstayed her welcome at Safe Haven. According to Lorraine Lopez in the article, this girl had overstayed the time allowed in the shelter, had refused help and advice given to her, had been disruptive to the point staff members felt threatened enough to refuse to work with her. Safe Haven had set her up with 3 jobs, all of which she quit claiming that the people didn't like her.

So Lorraine wanted her out of the home, naturally. In any home like this, you cannot have one individual making life hard and difficult for all the others, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Another similar incident related to me by a friend tells of a young boy who was at one of the children's homes, he had been through hell and basically had many behavioral problems, aggression for example. The home could not keep him there because of the effect he was having on the other children, he was returned to Social services and sent to god knows where. The fact is, social services are a disgrace, there is no help for these people and it's only through efforts by people like Lorraine and Liesa that some have been helped over the past years. The work of these foundations barely scratch the surface of the problems that exist.

Lorraine wanted her out, she was disruptive, yet the board disagreed it seems. This girl also took her problem to the press and the article from the 9th April is headlined "Safe Haven Client Claims Eviction". Rather misleading I think seeing as she is certainly not a client. Safe Haven is there to help people, not look after them continuously, people must be willing to help them selves too though, this girls seems to lack something in that area. At the end of the day though, her plight is not the fault of Safe Haven which runs on a very minimal budget, but upon government which fails to provide a functioning and professional social care network on the island.

The young girl above also mentioned in her complaint that Safe Haven hadn't provided counseling, considering there are only 2 Social workers on the island (as far as I know) approved by government to do so, it's not surprising. The girl clearly has little touch with the realities of life and the politicians are very much out of touch with the social needs of the island and what ignoring them will lead to.

I will be watching this issue closely and welcome any letters or information. It seems this "New Board" have set out to make fools of themselves. They claim to want to protect the institution but their actions have done damage to it, by attacking Lorraine Lopez and Liesa Euton de Molinaro in this manner they have put their own integrity in question.

Flipper

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