Africans Unite Against Child Abuse

AFRUCA's Work in the UK

Child Protection Training for African Parents in the North of England

Project Location: North of England (Manchester, Newcastle and Liverpool)
Project Contact: May Ikeora, Family Outreach worker – North of England AFRUCA
Project Funders: Department for Children, Schools and Families

Project Information:

The Child Protection Training for African parents in the North of England is a two-year project operating primarily in Manchester, Newcastle and Liverpool. The project is a follow-up to our Safeguarding African Children in England Project as well is an extension of our Child Protection Training for African Parents in London. This project commenced in April 2009.

Through this project, AFRUCA seeks to support African parents in the three cities who are unfamiliar with UK laws and who have strong cultural expectations about the way in which their children are raised. Cultural practices and beliefs, can be beneficial to all members of a community, however there are some that can be harmful to a specific group, such as women and children. Because of these harmful cultural practices many African parents are having their children taken away by the government due to accusations of child abuse or what is see as “significant harm”. As a result many African children are ending up in the care of local authorities.

The overall aim of the project is to help improve the quality of life of African families in the North of England (Manchester, Newcastle and Liverpool) and reduce the number of African children going into care.

This project has three key components:

• Promoting positive parenting skills i.e. getting the best out of a child without using some of the traditional methods deemed inappropriate or illegal in the UK
• Organising training workshops for parents to enable them gain knowledge and understanding of the key laws and regulations regarding child protection so they can better safeguard their children from abuse
• Offering support and advice to parents dealing with local authority children services