Africans Unite Against Child Abuse

AFRUCA's Work in the UK

The Safeguarding African Children in England Project

Project Location: Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle
Project Contact: May Ikeora, National Advocacy Officer, AFRUCA
Project Funders: Department for Children, Schools and Families

Project Information:

The Safeguarding African Children in England project is a three year project funded to develop and deliver an awareness raising and national training programme on child protection issues specific to African children and the African community. The programme runs in three major cities (Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle) and is targeted at two core groups. African community members including; faith leaders, parents, community workers and activists receive appropriate training in child protection issues to enable them identify the indicators of child abuse and so enhance their ability to safeguard vulnerable African children. Practitioners and professionals working across the spectrum of child protection also receive training to enhance their working knowledge of African children, their families and the issues facing them as well as strategies to better engage with this group of clients. This project has been running since April 2006 and has recorded many achievements.

Since the beginning of the project, we have trained over 750 practitioners and community leaders in the three focus cities (Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle). With this, we are proud of the number of participants who indicated that they have gained improve knowledge and understanding of the needs of African children and how to address these.



As part of our community education activities, we have disseminated over 15,000 copies of our educational materials to community groups and organisations across the three cities. This includes copies of ‘The Role of Faith Organisation in Safeguarding African Children’ which was disseminated amongst faith leaders and practitioners in the three cities and other places.

99% of community leaders who attended one of our workshops in Manchester have recommended that a safeguarding African Children’s Network be formed to provide a platform for community members share their ideas and experiences of child protection and child abuse prevention in the community as well as with regional policymakers. We are now seeking the funds to help meet this need.

We have strengthened our work in the cities through partnership with the African community and statutory organisations to enable us engage in effective policy intervention on issues of child protection in the African community. We have also collaborated with many agencies to organise awareness raising and educational events for practitioners, faith and community leaders in the three cites.

Our recently held conference ‘Enhancing the Safety and Well-being of Black African Children’ in March 2009 attracted about 120 delegates across the country. The conference also provided a platform for the launch of our new informational booklet ‘What is Child Abuse?’



Essentially, the conference explored current issues around safeguarding African children and young people as well as exploring the day to day reality frontline staff in social care experience in working across boundaries and cultures. A high proportion of the delegates signified that the conference was very useful to their work and have indicated interested in taking forward their learning opportunities through our National Training Programme on Safeguarding African Children. The conference marked the end of the Safeguarding African Children in England Project.

Based on the success of the project and its achievements over the past three years, we have been able to secure further funding to establish a Regional office in the North of England. Based in Manchester, the Regional office became operational in April 2009. Initial work will focus on the ‘Child Protection Training for African Parents’ project in three major cities in the North of England (Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle). We are convinced that our presence in the Region will enable us to further promote the welfare of African children as well as strengthen our capacity to deliver services to meet their needs.

Click here to contact our Regional Office based in Manchester.