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EXPERTS CONVERGE TO DISCUSS WELFARE OF AFRICAN CHILDREN

A cross section of experts in the field of child welfare and child protection will gather at the NSPCC Training Centre in Leicester on 16 and 17 July for a two day conference on the welfare of African children in the country.

Organised as a follow up to AFRUCA National conference held in January last year and in the aftermath of the Laming report into the death of Victoria Climbie, this year’s Conference will focus on the safeguarding of African children in the UK.

Sponsored by the NSPCC, the conference will also attract other child care practitioners including teachers, nurses, law enforcement officers and African community leaders.

AFRUCA Director Debbie Ariyo said the conference will mark a watershed in the lives of African children in the UK. “We will focus on key issues affecting our children with a view to coming up with recommendations to help safeguard them from cruelty and abuse.”

Another important element of the conference will be the launch of the report: Trafficking of African Children to the UK: Myth or Reality? This is the report of AFRUCA’s Seminar held on 20 November last year.

Expected keynote speakers at the conference include David Prescott, Deputy Director of the NSPCC and Andrew Cozens, Leicester City Council Director of Social Care and Health and in-coming President, Association of Directors of Social Services. Other key participants include Dr Nellie Adjei, Medical Adviser to the Victoria Climbie Inquiry, Lynne Chitty, Child Asylum Team Leader at West Sussex County Council and Nana Otoo Oyoto, Chairperson of FORWARD.

The conference will consider a number of issues that are known to significantly affect the lives of African children in the UK. “This is the first time that an event of this nature will take place to consider all those issues in a comprehensive manner”, said Bisi Olonisakin, Conference Organiser.

“These are issues that have come to the fore at one point or another with no concrete intervention on the government’s part. It was a missed opportunity that the Climbie Report omitted to focus on some of those issues even though they were clearly relevant”, she added.

The conference is also being held at a time when different events converge to highlight gaps within the system to protect the most vulnerable children in the UK. The issue of the physical punishment of children will be a key focus, not only because of the recent government announcement to ban childminders smacking children but also because of the failure to extend the ban to parents. AFRUCA expects that the conclusions of its community meeting on physical punishment and domestic violence held on 7 May in Peckham, South London will form a core basis of the discussions at the event.

AFRUCA’s report on the trafficking of children to the UK is also being launched at the event amidst the threat of closure to the only safe house in the UK that houses child victims of Trafficking. Interestingly enough, the West Sussex safe house features prominently in the report as an example of good practice to be emulated by other local authorities looking after child asylum seekers.

The plight of child asylum seekers highlights the discrimination in child welfare policy. The segregation of children in education, the denial of access to services and the imprisonment of children “whose stories don’t add up”—all point to the injustice in the system and the need for concerted efforts to influence policy on the subject.

Perhaps the only success that could be pin-pointed is the new bill on Female Genital Mutilation. But even that is fraught with inadequacies. Community groups are complaining that they had such little time to consult and comment on the draft before it went through parliament.

AFRUCA expects the conference to bring up long lasting strategies to help safeguard African children. “At the end of the day, what we would like to see is a clear-cut way towards the safeguarding of our children” Debbie Ariyo said.