NEWSLETTER April 2007

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News Subject:

World Initiative for Orphans

Prinsessegracht 3

2514 AN Den Haag

The Netherlands

Only three more weeks and the Conference on Children without Parental Care will start!!

More than 90 nationalities have been registered. With a great list of speakers, including 4 UN CRC members, the conference promises to be very successful upfront. Still some seats are available, so if you are working in the field of children without parental care, make sure you don’t miss this opportunity to share knowledge and to identify new approaches for problem solving. The official opening of the conference will be held at The Peace Palace in The Hague, on Monday May 21st, at 5 PM.

The further development of WIO Foundation goes as planned. The awareness in the world about the unimaginable drama is growing. The UN CRC has welcomed the WIO initiative and has invited WIO to present proposals for structured cooperation. Already 4 countries are selected to participate in research and conceptual model building. 8 governments (4 African, 3 European and 1 Latin American country), have requested for a Memorandum of Understanding to prepare the full membership of the World Council.

Cooperation between governments and NGOs is crucial. Please join us now!

Maarten G.H. Brekelmans, CEO

5-15 January

Field trip to Kenya / Ethiopia

2 February

Full presentation to the complete United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva.

Jan 29th / April 30th

Meetings with government representatives of Jordan, Rwanda, Argentina, Kenya, Liberia, Ethiopia and the European Parliament.

May 18th - June 18th

World Orphan Month 2007 with 39 activities to start and support 39 projects throughout the world

June

Meetings with the World Bank and EU Commission

Child in Children’s Home in Nairobi, Kenya

World Conference May 2007

We kindly invite you for the World Conference on Children without Parental Care to be held in The Netherlands on May 21-24, 2007.

Participants will include government officials, NGO representatives and researchers. A wide range of distinguished speakers, children's advocates and experts in various fields will discuss the long needed reforms in child welfare policies.

Registration for the conference is still open!

Opening RIOR Africa

January 11th 2007 WIO has opened a regional office in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. This Regional Institute for Orphan Research will be the regional contact point for WIO for the African countries. The regional representative for Africa is Bettina Keppers.

Cooperation with two African Children’s rights organizations

WIO starts full partnership with the two largest pan-African children’s rights organizations, African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) in Ethiopia and African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) in Kenya.

World Orphan Month May 2007

The first annual World Orphan Month will be held in May 2007. In this month the Orphan Awareness Foundation in cooperation with WIO will organize different activities to increase awareness concerning the plight of the more than 150 million children without parental care.

Date: 21 - 24 May 2007

Location: The Hague, The Netherlands

This international conference, meant for government decision-makers, relevant NGOs and researchers, will provide an open forum for communication and will identify new approaches and model practical solutions.

Workshops will be organized in the fields of reunification, child soldiers, foster care and kinship care, adoption and residential / institutional care.

Among keynote and workshop speakers are:

· Prof. Dr. Jaap E. Doek - Chair United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child

· Dr. Assefa Bequele - President African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) of Ethiopia

· Prof. Dr. Lyra del Castillo - Board Member of the Intercountry Adoption Board, Republic of the Philippines

· Prof. Dr. René A.C. Hoksbergen - University of Utrecht, The Netherlands

· Mr. Arend Huitzing - HIV/AIDS advisor, AWEPA, Association of European Parliamentarians for Africa, The Netherlands

· Mrs. Wambui Njuguna - Regional Program Director, African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN), Kenya

· Dr. Awich Pollar - UNCRC Committee member, Former Child Soldier, Uganda

· Mr. Paul Sunder Singh - Founder / Executive Director of Karunalaya Centre, India

· Mrs. Monica Woodhouse - Founder / Director of Give a Child a Family, South Africa

· Mr. Rolf Widmer - Director ISS, Switzerland

· Dr. Nevena Vuckovic - Sahovic, UNCRC Committee member, Serbia

More information and the registration form for the conference can be found on www.wiorphans.org.

During the 44th session of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, World Initiative for Orphans presented to the committee. WIO’s CEO Maarten Brekelmans spoke to the members of the committee on WIO’s mission and vision, goals and ideas, emphasizing the need for the platform WIO strives to be.

The committee proved very interested, and underlined the importance of WIO. Several members of the UN CRC will attend WIO’s World Conference on Children without Parental Care in The Netherlands, May 21-24, 2007.

Following the presentation WIO received a letter from Jacob Doek, Chairman of the UN CRC, in which the UN invites WIO to structural cooperation and proposals.

"I like beginnings and I hope this is the beginning of something that is important for orphaned and abandoned children in the world" Jacob Doek

The UN Secretary-General's Study on Violence Against Children was launched in Geneva on 20 November 2006. One of the chapters of this report is dedicated to violence against children in care and justice institutions.

The study points out that boys and girls who live in institutions may be at heightened risk of violence. Some studies have found that violence in residential institutions is six times higher than violence in foster care, and that children in group care are almost four times more likely to experience sexual abuse than children in family based care.

Different factors contributing to violence in institutions are pointed out:

· Low priority in political terms

· Unqualified staff and low pay

· Lack of monitoring and impunity of perpetrators

· Failure to segregate children in need for protection and children in conflict with the law

The greatest amount of evidence concerns violence of various kinds by staff, including neglect, and violence by children against other children. In addition, some forms of treatment practiced in many institutions themselves constitute violence.

To prevent and address violence against children in care and justice systems, various actions must be taken. Amongst these are ensuring that institutionalization is used as a last resort and that violence in care and justice systems are prohibited.

Source: www.violencestudy.org

Sandra Knuiman

There are more than 150 million children without parental care right now. It is our mission to increase worldwide awareness concerning the plight of these children through an international education campaign in coordination with countries, concerned partners, international organizations and individuals who believe in the realization of best interest of the child practices. In order to make our mission a reality we need the help of everyone willing to stand up for these children throughout the world.

It is with this in mind that the Orphan Awareness Foundation (OAF) in cooperation with World Initiative for Orphans announces the World Orphan Month (WOM). During this month different activities will be organized. The first annual WOM will be held in May 2007. Through the establishment of World Orphans Month we will create global awareness which will enhance the momentum needed to spread the word about our world's most vulnerable population. We strive to enable the orphaned and abandoned children to find permanent, loving homes.

Please watch for the Orphan Awareness Foundation website to come on line with additional information. www.orphanawareness.org

Help us raise awareness and be part of the change. It doesn't take much to make a difference in the life of a child. Change is

coming… Be the change!

Larry Adams

This initiative, powered by the Argentinean National Secretary of Childhood, Adolescence and Family, Department of Childhood and Adolescence of the City Buenos Aires and UNICEF, focuses on the specific challenges of big cities in Latin America to promote and guard children’s rights.

The urban life the Latin-American metropolis offers a lot of opportunities, but at the same serves as the display of the cruelest form of exclusion and social inequality; children are often the first victim of this reality.

With this colloquium, the exchange of experiences and perspectives on social politics is set as a goal in order to establish a public agenda of most urgent problems for all child welfare actors.

The discussed the problems of big cities and topics such as: childhood and social exclusion; migration, multiculturalism and non discrimination; new expressions of juvenile culture and the urban public space; public response to childhood in danger and the social gap in education, health and nutrition attention.

The successful assembly gathered national and local government entities from 9 South American countries on 6 and 7 December 2006 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

By the panel of children in social danger, as well as in other panels, Children without Parental Care are defined as a group of special attention: children living on the streets, children victim of physical or sexual abuse or exploitation. In various cities, programmes of alternative care for children such as foster care, and centers to improve the life quality of children living on the street, programmes for cooperation in order to combat child sexual exploitation and child traffic are in course, although more programmes and budget is needed in order to prevent these threats to children’s rights.

Reinforcing the Millennium Development Goals, the good will to work together in order to improve the life quality with equal opportunity was pronounced with the Engagement of Buenos Aires, 2006, signed at the end of the colloquium by all the present representatives. This first colloquium was the starting point of periodic meetings of child policy makers, the second colloquium will be held in Bogotá, Colombia in June 2007.

Joke Heymans

Please let me take this opportunity to introduce to you our colleague Inge Gouwenberg. She works in the headquarters of WIO as office manager and is involved in the organization of the conference and the activities which will be held in the Netherlands during the World Orphan Month in May.

Inge is very dedicated to her work and as a mother of two children she is very gripped by the wellbeing of all vulnerable children over the world.

In January Inge visited Kenya and Ethiopia to learn about the reality of the situation of children without parental care and to meet with several representatives of African children’s rights organizations. After this trip she is even more convinced about the mission of WIO and the need for a change to improve the situation of the millions of children without parental care worldwide.

Editor: Sandra Knuiman

World Initiative for Orphans, Prinsessegracht 3, 2514 Den Haag, The Netherlands

Phone:

/ Fax: (+31) 70 345 3134

Email: info@wiorphans.org
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Website: www.wiorphans.org
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