I am questioning if there is real justice in Barbados for women seeking child support.
If there was, then no man would be able to continue to ignore adhering to a court order for him to pay maintenance, yet nothing is done about him.
If a man is fined and the system forgets to run behind him to make him pay it, if he ever comes back to court he is locked up. I see that all the time in the newspapers.
But men who owe maintenance don’t get treated so. Just ask the women who have been going to court for years complaining about not getting any money month after month, year after year. Nothing is done.
To this date I have not received anything for my child, and this is over ten years.
I went to the High Court, where I started to get some assistance and once more I am scheduled to get a hearing. I hope that this time I get through because this man owes over $20-something thousand in maintenance arrears.
Since I started trying to get him to live up to his responsibility to his child, he has married and has two other children. Yet he says he cannot afford to pay the weekly $45 which was ordered.
If the court does nothing to remedy my situation, my only wish is that all other men who do not support their children be allowed the same privileges as my child’s father. Then there would be a huge outcry from women and everybody in Government would rush to help.
As a society we seem only to respond to things when they are in crisis. So I really hope for that.
The truth is, things are hard for me as a single mother. I chose not to have any more children to have a decent life. I have been responsible. Why can’t this man? And why does the legal system not work to help me and other women like me?
All I really want is for justice to be done. Why should I have to be suffering so while he can continue his life ignoring his responsibilities?
It is not fair to me and, more so, not fair to his child. It is not right to any woman and needs to be addressed urgently.
Remember, justice delayed is justice denied.
