Lolly Lounge in Eldos Ext.3 Exposed!
We found five children in need of care and protection."
Dereleen James, Local Drug Action Committee (LDAC) said during an interview last year, “Drug addiction thrives in the filthy, dark corners of in our community.”
Her words would come to mind on October 13 when the committed LDAC team found five children living in what LDAC chairperson Cheryl Pillay described as a ‘lolly’ lounge.
Pillay said, “We found five children in need of care and protection. The youngest of the five we found was as young as one month old and the oldest seven.”
The team were at the residence to clear it and have the children removed to a place of safety. Drug addiction or substance abuse is rife within the community and children bear the brunt of the plague.
Addicted parents are consumed by the urge to get their fix and the children’s hygiene and nutritional needs are often neglected as they drift away into the hazy nothingness of a drug-induced euphoria.
Overcrowded backyards often leave the children vulnerable to sexual predators and the zozos which dot the landscape in Eldorado Park makes them easy prey.
According to Pillay, the mothers admitted to being drug addicts.
She said, “It was clear that these children were victims of neglect as a result of their parents’ dependence on these illicit substances. We found ‘lolly’ pipes laying around in the house, a strong stench, dirty dishes and dirty washing all over.”
Pillay said that no human being should be living in such conditions and added that she had made several phone calls to the Department of Social Development for assistance and was promised that a social worker would be dispatched to provide help.
The social worker was at the safe house on Friday but has still not returned to help the children.
Pillay said that the procedure to be followed when dealing with removing children from a harmful environment was to have DSD respond within 72 hours.
According to Pillay, the regional director for social development said in a telephonic conversation, “Is it Eldorado Park again, are you special?”.
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