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Newsletters
In this issue you will find:
ISS Australia had the privilege of hosting the ISS Asia-Pacific regional training seminar, Children in Cross-Border Family Conflicts. Funded by the Australian Attorney-General’s Department, this 3-day training event took place in Sydney in June and focused on building knowledge and skills in the child-centred, mediation-based approach of ISS to cross-border family work.
Forty-two participants attended the training seminar, with representatives from 16 Asia-Pacific countries: Australia, China, Fiji, Hong-Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Vietnam. Delegates included veteran ISS workers as well as those who joined the ISS global network during the training, such as Papua New Guinea.Our international training team included William Duncan and Jenny Degeling from The Hague, Jane Selwood from the Australian Central Authority, Dr Lawrie Moloney from La Trobe University, Stephan Auerbach from ISS Switzerland, Yuk-ching Cheung from ISS Hong Kong, as well as Maria Brett and Sandra De Silva from ISS Australia. Andrew Johnson, the Executive Director from ACOSS gave our keynote address.
The 3-day training event gave everyone the valuable opportunity to learn first-hand what is happening in the Asia-Pacific region around international child rights and child protection issues. During the first half of the seminar, participants were introduced to the international conventions that govern the rights-based work of ISS, as well as the ISS casework methodology and were challenged to put their learning into practice. During the latter half, participants explored the skills needed for cross-cultural family work and the ISS mediation-based approach to working with cross-border family conflict.
Sandra De Silva, ISS Australia’s Training Coordinator, co-ordinated the training event very ably, bringing together the experience and expertise, not only of our international training team, but also of members of the ISS network within the region. The training seminar was a rare chance for participants to meet the individuals who, as a network, uphold the rights and protection of children across borders in their everyday work.
All the participants and the trainers put in a great effort. Thank you to everyone.
From Stephan Auerbach / ISS Switzerland
It has been a special honour and a great opportunity for me to have had the chance to participate to this seminar as the only delegate from “up here” (this is to say, from Europe - see how Eurocentric our vision of the globe remains!). I truly found that ISS in the Asia-Pacific region is a vital, dynamic network, with great potential for future development. Participants from countries as diverse as Pakistan, Japan and Fiji contributed to strengthening the common vision and methodology of ISS inter-country casework, centred around children’s and other vulnerable person’s needs and rights, especially migrant or trafficked children and women in the region. I treasure very much this common work based on the diversity of our experiences.
An important thing that I learned during the seminar is that ISS needs to develop a much more horizontal network structure, allowing for all ISS correspondents to have easier mutual access to contacts, experiences, local projects and resource persons within the network. The Asia-Pacific region is an increasingly important place in today’s world and has such tremendous regional migration movements. If we want this development to be beneficial for children and their (often cross-border) families, ISS must play a more active role giving support to those who are left behind or exploited in the shadows of globalization.
Thank you very much, ISS Australia!
From CHEUNG, Yuk-ching / ISS Hong Kong
Thanks so much to ISS-Australia and the ISS General Secretariat for making this training seminar possible. Not only did it offer a chance for ISS units in the Asia-Pacific region to advance ourselves in handling inter-country casework, but I also especially treasure the friendships that have been established within the ISS family. The training seminar is a manifestation of the ISS mission of international cooperation for child protection. I learnt a lot from the diversity of cultures represented at the seminar and appreciate that we all worked seriously towards the goal of child protection together.
ISS-Hong Kong, as an ISS regional office of the Asia-Pacific also took this chance to strengthen the network. As a trainer, I am honoured to have shared my experience of intercultural family practice with the participants. As a training team member, I enjoyed the experience of working with other ISS trainers. As a participant, I cannot wait to pass what I have learnt in the seminar to my colleagues in Hong Kong.
Liz Forsyth, Inter-Country Social Worker & Project Development Officer from our NSW office, attended and presented at the Australian College of Child & Family Protection Practitioners (ACCFPP) Conference, ‘Borders & Bridges’, which was held in Melbourne in May. The conference was aimed to reflect the broad context of Australian child and family practice. The purpose of the event was to address the differences and complexity of diverse child and family protection systems, aiming to bridge the ‘gaps’ between agencies and professionals as they differ across states. Conference delegates included a range of child and family protection workers, researchers, academics and public policy makers from across Australia, and the conference presentations and papers covered a variety of practice, research and policy issues related to current child protection work in Australia.
At this conference Liz presented a paper titled ‘Can we build a bridge that’s big enough? The rights of children in out-of-home care: an inter-country perspective'. The purpose of this paper was to address the issue of moving beyond domestic differences and introducing an ‘inter-country’ aspect in child and family work with children in out-of-home care. The paper also aimed to increase awareness of children’s rights in out-of-home-care – specifically as they relate to cases where there is a child who is subject to an out-of-home care system outside their country of origin. In this, Liz proposed using the Untied Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as a broad framework for practice, particularly as a mechanism to bridge the differences between child protection legislation and systems across states. In presenting this paper at the conference, Liz also outlined how domestic child and family workers can consider ways to improve existing policies and practices in working with inter-country cases, and highlighted how ISS can support domestic child protection systems to better uphold the rights of children in out-of-home care. Liz’s paper and presentation was well received by conference delegates, and resulted in an increased understanding of the inter-country issues that need to be considered in domestic child and family protection practice.
by Sally Szmerling, IPCA Social Worker
Across the world, indigenous people have fought and continue to fight for the right to maintain their unique cultures and identities. According to UNICEF there are around 300 million indigenous people throughout the word, and over half this number are said to be children and young people. Indigenous children are amongst the most vulnerable and marginalised group of all children in the world, suffering discrimination, lower education levels, high mortality rates and poor health compared to the rest of the population in respective countries.
In Australia, there has recently been an overwhelming level of publicity surrounding child abuse and neglect in remote indigenous communities. The politicization of these issues has lead indigenous children to become the unwitting subjects of a National controversy. Whilst a great deal is known about the problems experienced by indigenous children in Australia and across the world, what do we known about them as children? Indigenous children are important carriers of cultural heritage and they are resourceful, creative and ambitious.
Here are some interesting facts about indigenous children:
Farewell to ISS - by Anjali Prabhu, NSW Service Coordinator
I have been working at ISS in various capacities, both in the UK office and at ISS Australia’s NSW Office for the past 6 years and, in fact, had my first experience as a student Social Worker with ISS in 1998. It is with fond memories that I will be leaving ISS at the end of August. I will be staying within the inter-country social work field, taking up a position at the Department of Community Services in their Inter-country Adoption section.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank and acknowledge all my colleagues within the international ISS network, and particularly here in ISS Australia’s NSW Office and National Office, including the president Margaret Roberts and the Council of Management. I have thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of my work and feel privileged to have had the opportunity to be a part of so many individuals’ and families’ journeys.
Thanks again to everyone I have worked with, it has been a fantastic time.
New Staff, Students and Volunteers at ISS Australia
We are pleased to welcome two new social work students, Alex Connelly from RMIT University and Lauren Power from Melbourne University who commenced student placements at the National Office in July. We also have five new volunteers who are bringing a wealth of skills to the administration of ISS Australia, undertaking a wide range of tasks from reception and financial administration to marketing, administrative systems and archives. Students and volunteers play a vital role in ISS Australia, helping us to meet the demand for inter-country casework and to continually improve the quality of our services.
In the NSW Office, we will soon be appointing a new NSW Service Coordinator to replace Anjali Prabhu and will be recruiting a new part-time inter-country caseworker. In August, we will welcome our new part-time Bookkeeper, Vivienne, Zethoven, who we are sure will get our financial systems running smoothly.
It’s great to have so many new faces join the ISS Australia team
Would that we could identify the ISS unit who assisted us in this case for their prompt and professional service but respecting the client’s confidence and that of his family does not permit it.
A baby was born in Australia of an overseas mother who immediately left for her country of origin. Child protection services in Australia who arranged foster care for the baby requested ISS Australia to arrange a home assessment and report on the baby’s next-of-kin overseas who could share care of the baby with the mother. They also wanted ISS to enquire about child protection services and support for the new parents in the country concerned. The case was potentially more challenging because the other country was not a signatory to any of the Hague Conventions concerning children. While the manager of the child protection office in the other country liaised with the baby’s relatives regularly, the overseas ISS unit made contact with local social services that could assist. With their support, the birth mother and her family were given information about child protection and support services and they co-operated with requirements for assessment reports and background checks. Assessment reports were promptly sent via the ISS units to the referring child protection manager in Australia and once arrangement were all in place, the manager escorted the baby ‘home’.
All identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of ISS clients.
It’s that time of year again when we send out membership renewal forms. Our membership numbers in recent years have dropped quite low so in the next month we’re having a big drive to encourage more individuals and organisations to join. This is a way to show your support for the important work we do.
Membership is an inexpensive way to support ISS Australia, with different levels of membership available to suit your circumstances:
To become a member of ISS Australia, please download the membership form at our website.
The ISS newsletter is now produced every two months. If you would like to contribute to the newsletter, either by writing an article or a letter to the editor, please contact Maria Brett at maria@iss.org.au.
We always appreciate your feedback. To respond to articles or give us feedback, please e-mail the editor.