International Women’s Day is a great opportunity to celebrate so many amazing women who have made a difference to our world. And, for me, to remember with gratitude the many incredible women I have had the privilege to know.
It is also an opportunity to recognise the ongoing violence and abuse that affects so many women and girls across the world.
The statistics are horrific.
But even more salutary are the individual stories that lie behind those statistics – salutary not just because of the appalling circumstances so many women and girls have to live with, but also because of the amazing courage, resilience and hope that they embody.
Today also marks one month till our 2018 BASPCAN international child protection congress. And, as it approaches, I am looking forward to it more and more. And not least because of some of the incredible women whom we have lined up as speakers.
People like:
Elaine Storkey, former president of Tearfund, and long-standing campaigner for women’s rights, who has powerfully documented the reality of violence against women and girls in her book, Scars across Humanity
Clare Shaw, our poet in residence, whose poems reflect the depth of expertise held by someone who has walked with trauma
Siobhan Beckwith, whose talk, Hearts in the Goldfish Bowl, draws on her experience coming alongside mothers who have had to live apart from their children
Kish Bhatti-Sinclair, a reader in social policy and social work, who will be challenging us to rethink our own prejudices, discrimination and unconscious bias
Anne Fine, the celebrated author, whose novels capture, in a very human way, the reality of many children’s lives
There are so many more I could mention. And I’m really looking forward to meeting them and hearing what they have to say.
It is not too late to book, so do take a look at the programme on our congress website:
I am really excited that Anne Fine, celebrated children’s laureate will be a keynote speaker at our BASPCAN 10th International Congress to be held at the University of Warwick in April 2018. Anne is the author of such books as Madame Doubtfire, Flour Babies, and The Tulip Touch. Her keynote talk, Pebbles in the fairy tale will explore what we can learn from children’s literature about protecting children.
The theme of the congress is ‘Thinking outside the box: innovative perspectives on protecting children and young people.’ The theme reflects our desire to learn and develop, encouraging participants to be creative and reflexive and to learn from each other.
Thinking outside the box: Fragile Credit: Dan Tucker
The congress will bring together practitioners, survivors of abuse, researchers, trainers and policy makers. We will learn from each other, reflect, and consider how we can improve services to support families and protect children and young people.
Pebbles in the fairy tale: what can child protection learn from children’s literature
Literature has always been the most accessible instrument we have for ethical enquiry and the clearest way to answer Socrates’ great question, “How ought we to live?” But all too often the child’s need for a means to interpret their own experience of childhood is ignored. A young person who cannot bear even to begin to think about his or her own unhappy and stressed situation can often begin, safely, to explore the problems they face through fiction – somebody else’s problem.
In her talk, Anne Fine will show how books can offer shafts of light and comfort to the troubled child. She will show how they can foster self-scrutiny – not just in the young reader him or herself, but also in the (often overly self-protective) adults who deal with them. Anne will show what these fictional avenues of vicarious experience can mean to young readers, what insights they can bring, and what a comfort they can be. She will try to show how the tolerance and understanding offered by particular novels can offer the twenty first century equivalent of the pebbles in the fairy tale, gleaming in the moonlight and showing the way out of the dark forest.
Anne is a distinguished writer for both adults and children. She has twice won both of Britain’s most coveted awards for children’s literature, the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread (now Costa) Award, along with a Guardian Award, two Smarties/Nestle Awards, and many other national, regional and international prizes.
Anne is known for writing, with sensitivity and often with humour, on many serious subjects that affect the lives of young readers. Madame Doubtfire tackles the topic of access and custody after divorce. Both Goggle-Eyes and Step by Wicked Step delve into the special strains and complications of stepfamily relationships. Flour Babies is a comedy that illuminates for its readers both the joys and the sheer effort and commitment necessary for successful parenting. The Tulip Touch is a novel about a seriously disturbed child from an unsupportive home. The Book of the Banshee delineates teenage upheavals. Blood Family deals with the topic of family brutality and addiction. Up On Cloud Nine is a masterful portrait of an eccentric child’s progress through education. Charm School has been described as ‘Germaine Greer for Juniors’, and Bill’s New Frock unpacks unthinking gender stereotypes.
Anne Fine has also published eight black comedies for adults. She was Children’s Laureate from 2001-3. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been awarded an OBE. Her work has been translated into forty five languages.
Registration opens soon
Registration for the congress will open soon. There are special rates for BASPCAN members and for students, the unemployed, those on low incomes and those from low-income countries.
A call for abstracts will open soon. We are looking for presentations from practitioners, researchers and experts by experience (both survivors of abuse and users of family services). So watch this space, or register your interest on the BASPCAN congress website.
