Africans Unite Against Child Abuse

The Benefits of Afruca

Since our inception six and a half years ago in May 2001, our work has directly benefitted over 3,500 children, young people, their families and those who work with them. Here is a summary of our achievements and what we do.

Our Achievements

• We hold Child Protection Training for African Parents across London. This is a newly launched programme which we hope will help to train 240 parents each year over the next five years about the indicators of child abuse and how to safeguard vulnerable children from harm.
• We hold yearly conferences, regular seminars and community meetings, to raise awareness of and educate on the needs of African children. At least 2,500 child welfare practitioners have gained improved knowledge and developed their competencies through attending our conferences, workshops and other training activities.
• We produce various publications and reports to aid practitioners and those who work with children, parents and others about the specific needs and priorities of African children in the UK.
• AFRUCA is the only UK based African charity actively working on counter-trafficking issues. We have been very vocal and visible in advocating and raising awareness of the risks of child trafficking, the role of the African community in stopping it, and the roles of various governments in working with others to address it.
• We input into various government policy developments and work closely with policymakers at the national, regional and local levels. In the past, we inputted into the Home Office Consultation on Human Trafficking, the Victoria Climbie inquiry, The Children's Green Paper, The Children’s Bill, the Immigration and Asylum bill and others.
• We run a youth forum "Youths for Africa" to help develop the leadership skills of young Africans in London. Over 250 young people have benefitted from this programme through its training activities, meetings and other event participation.
• We work in partnership with others on different alliances, forums, committees, panels and working groups to address issues affecting the welfare of children at the local, regional, national and international levels.
• We are called on to speak at events including community activities, conferences, trainings and seminars. In the past we have made presentations to the British Association of Social Workers Annual Conference, the Crown Prosecution Service Conference on Human Trafficking, The Scottish Police Conference on Human Trafficking, Westminster ACPC Annual Conference, Islington ACPC, African Carribean Evangelical Alliance Youth Conference Leicester ACPC Annual Conference and Lambeth ACPC Annual Conference.
• We are always invited to make appearances in the media to raise awareness of issues affecting the welfare of African children. Our work has received coverage on BBC News 24, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Network Africa, the Guardian newspaper, the Independent newspaper, the Daily Mail, the Nigerian Guardian newspaper, East African Standard (Kenya), This Day newspaper (Nigeria), The Mail and Guardian (South Africa) etc
• We produce papers, articles and features in key publications to highlight the issue of the rights and welfare of African children.
• We are regularly approached by various government agencies, including local authorities, the immigration service, law centres, health visitors, nurses, the police and a wide range of other NGOs to provide information, help and advice on cases involving children of African origin. Some past users include Hackney Law Centre, Kent County Council, Nottingham City Council, London Borough of Islington, Asylum Aid, the Metropolitan Police Service, Camden Law Centre and so on.
• We are regularly approached by researchers, academics, students and others to act as research resource and to provide information, help and sources of information on relevant research projects. Users include a wide range of journalists and postgraduate students.

We are a catalyst for change in our community and we continue to push for positive change for African children in the following ways:

1. By providing a wide range of services to directly meet the needs of African children –over 500 children have directly benefited from our work over the past six an half years years.
2. By influencing government equal opportunities practices so that services for children and young people take account of the needs and priorities of African children.
3. By working with service providers, especially local authority social services to ensure their services meet the needs of individual children in need or at risk
4. By playing a leadership role in attitudinal changes within the African community in the UK, towards the way children are treated.
5. By raising public awareness of issues confronting African children, and challenging false stereotypes of Africans at the same time
6. By educating and informing practitioners to improve their working knowledge of the general circumstances under which Africans and their African children exist, and the key issues confronting them as people in the UK.

Our Unique Selling Point

Overall, our unique selling point is that we are the premier African organisation in the UK consistently speaking out on issues affecting the welfare of African children and providing an African perspective into mainstream debates on child rights and welfare issues in the UK.