International partnerships
Action for Children's expertise in
childcare is valued internationally, as well as in the
UK.
We have been working collaboratively with partners in
southern Africa for over 100 years and for nearly
45 years across the Caribbean, with a more
recently established project currently underway in Central
America. This work in Belize is helping
the national Methodist Church to refresh its children's work,
promote safeguarding among national key workers and to support
vulnerable teenage mothers.
In the past, Action for Children has also provided consultancy
services in countries such as: Russia, St
Lucia, Dominica and
Jamaica. Between 2004-2008, the charity partnered
with Department for International Development to establish a Child
Protection Framework for the British Overseas
Territories. This resulted in national safeguarding
frameworks for six Caribbean BOTs and also: St
Helena, Tristan da Cunha,
Ascension Island and The Falkland
Islands in the South Atlantic.
Africa
Action for Children's first venture outside of the UK was Marsh
Memorial Home, established in Rondebosch, South
Africa in 1901 according to the 'Stephenson Model' of
care. By the early 1960s, records show that Action for Children has
expanded its work by facilitating child care training at the
request of the Methodist Church at the 'Home for Motherless Babies'
in Uzuakoli, Nigeria.
Today, we work in African countries through partnership with the
Methodist Church Connexion of Southern Africa
(MCSA) and the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe. This
contributes to community-based care for vulnerable children in
South Africa, Lesotho,
Botswana, Swaziland and
Zimbabwe. We also liaise with the National
Association of Child Care Workers in South Africa. As a result, we
are able to promote protocols around good practice in residential
care; recruitment, support of volunteers, safeguarding and many
other aspects of service development in child care.
In Lesotho, our partnership support focuses on
primary education and includes:
The Quthing Circuit Children's Pre-School Project, The Liphiring
Methodist Pre-school Project and The Mtetwa Day Care Centre and
Pre-School Project.
In
Swaziland, we support school meals and other
community-based services for children affected by HIV/AIDS.Examples
of joint projects with the Methodist Church are the Luhleko Mission
Outreach Care Centre, the Tsintseka Nawe' (be sympathetic to)
Project and the Manzini Children's Programme.
In Botswana, our new area of work includes
projects such as The Gaborone Care & Protection Programme, The
Bornus Methodist Project, the 'Ditsala Tsa Bana' (Children's
Friends) Project.
In Zimbabwe, we support the Matthew Rusike
Children's Home (MRCH) at Epworth, Harare, which has become the
child care arm of the Methodist Church Zimbabwe. We are also
supporting the development of community based child care services
throughout the country and have also assisted the Zimbabwe National
Council for the Welfare of Children in its development work.
The Caribbean
In 1969, in celebration of the United Nations International Year
of the Child and following a request for assistance, Action for
Children opened relations with the Methodist Church and Government
of Jamaica. A residential children's home was
subsequently constructed on the outskirts of Kingston, as well as a
school for children with special needs and a residential unit for
children with severe mental and physical disabilities. By 1989,
Action for Children had agreed to allow full local management
control to be invested in the Jamaican National Children's Home
(JNCH) which was duly registered locally. The JNCH, its related
school and services are now fully autonomous.
Other Caribbean projects have included direct support services in
Grenada, where Action for Children established and
conducted the national foster care services for over 2 decades and
established a rural project ('The Spice Project') for children with
disabilities. In Dominica, family services and
counselling were offered through local staff. During 2010, the
Charity handed over a 'Place of Safety' to the Government of
Dominica. This emergency care service for abused and abandoned
children was constructed in partnership with the Government, many
development partners and individual donors. It will now be run by
Dominica's national Social Service Ministry.
The Charity's focus in Barbados has allowed
delivery of child care training and youth work across a network of
civil society groups and government ministries. These initiatives
helped to expand training opportunities for many social workers,
child care practitioners and other professionals throughout
Belize and the Eastern
Caribbean.
By 2011, Action for Children will have completed a transition
programme to handover all its Caribbean work to local government
agencies or to the Methodist Church of the Caribbean and the
Americas (South Caribbean District).
Central America
Although originally an Action for Children initiative in the
1980s, the Youth Enhancement Services (YES) in
Belize has blossomed into an autonomous, national
service to teenage mothers.
YES's services entail: a centre for teenage mums, advocacy and
special initiatives against sexual exploitation, child and
adolescent trafficking and the spread of HIV/AIDS. Since 2007,
Action for Children has been supporting a partnership appointment
with the Methodist World Church Relationships Office in the UK to
support YES's national agenda.
Contact
For more information or to support our work please email
Action for Children's Faith Communities Adviser, Will Morrey:
will.morrey@actionforchildren.org.uk
Alternative contact details:
Tel: +44 7912 774 039
Address: Will Morrey, Faith Communities Adviser, Action for
Children, 10 Great Queen Street, London WC2B 5DG