ISS April 2008 Newsletter
In this issue you will find:
- NSW Office moves to new premises
- Green Paper - Kinship Care Policy in Victoria
- Legal Advice Service - Profile on Bibiana D'souza
- New Students and Volunteers
- Correspondent Profile - Vietnam
- Child Rights Corner - International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
- Case Study - Supporting the return of an abducted child
NEWS
NSW Office moves to new premises
On 28 March 2008 the NSW Office of ISS Australia relocated to new premises at Level 1, 518 Kent Street, Sydney, NSW 2000. The new office will provide a better working environment which will benefit both staff and clients. The bigger office will assist in the continuing growth of service delivery in NSW and creates the opportunity to employ more staff, and accommodate students and volunteers. Our phone and fax numbers have remained the same.
Green Paper - Kinship Care Policy in Victoria
ISS Australia has submitted a response the Department of Human Service’s Green Paper on Kinship Care in Victoria. The Green Paper provides a detailed look at current practice in kinship care in Victoria and makes proposals for future developments aimed at improving outcomes for children in care. The Green Paper was an excellent opportunity for ISS Australia to contribute to the development of government policy on kinship care from our inter-country perspective, and to harness opportunities for greater collaboration with DHS.
In Victoria, children with one or both parents born overseas comprise a significant number. 2006 Census figures indicate that approximately 200,000 Victorian children aged 17 years and under were born to overseas parents. The figure is markedly higher if the number of children with one parent born overseas is added. Given these statistics, there is great scope for ISS Australia, with its extensive international expertise and access to a broad international network, to greatly enhance the kinship care work of DHS across international borders.
ISS Australia already undertakes inter-country casework relating to kinship care although referral levels are lower in Victoria than in NSW and Queensland. Using the ISS network we are able to trace immediate family members, provide home assessments, facilitate the placement of children with overseas kin and ultimately provide follow up support for the placement. Conversely, ISS Australia receives referrals from overseas ISS units for children in other countries with child protection needs whose kinship carers are in Australia.
WHO’S WHO at ISS Australia
Legal Advice Service - Profile on Bibiana D'Souza
by Sandra De Silva, IPCA Coordinator, ISS Australia, National Office
Bibiana D’Souza is one of two partners at Oakfair Lawyers, based in Melbourne. Bibiana generously offered to volunteer her services to ISS Australia, after Sandra De Silva gave a presentation in July 2007 to the Law Institute of Victoria about the work of ISS in relation to international child abduction, Hague Convention matters and international family work.
Bibiana has more than 20 years’ family law experience, having practised since 1980, including seven years in Singapore before coming to Australia. She advises on family law matters in the Family Court of Australia and the Federal Magistrates Court, including disputes arising from family separation, arrangements relating to the care of children and applications for return of abducted children under the 1980 Hague Convention.
Bibiana, who is of Asian origin and speaks Mandarin fluently, as well as several dialects, brings both her international experience and her legal expertise to her volunteer role with ISS. Bibiana’s contribution greatly strengthens the capacity of ISS Australia to work more comprehensively on international family matters, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.
New Students and Volunteers
We are pleased to welcome Amy Willis and Christina Moelholm from Victoria University who are social work students on placement at ISS Australia. As reported in our last newsletter edition, Amy is working on our Victorian Kinship Placement Project. Christina, who is actually an international exchange student from Denmark, is working on our research project on the 1996 Hague Convention on Child Protection. This is the first time ISS Australia has hosted an international student and we hope there will be more to come.
Welcome also to Claudia Komimbin, a final year Arts student who is a new volunteer. Claudia is helping with a range of administrative tasks at our National Office.
CASEWORK
Correspondent Profile - Vietnam
by Tran Thi Quy, Project Coordinator, Social Work Department, Vietnam Red Cross
In 1975 after the war, many people fled to other countries. Most of our clients are looking for their relatives inside Vietnam and overseas. We have had thousands of tracing requests from and to about 15 overseas countries and 64 provinces in Vietnam. Among the tracing requests from overseas countries, some of them are social investigation cases, mostly from Australia, Germany, Canada, New Zealand and Hong Kong, related to adoption procedures and parents.
I am responsible for screening our information flow and sending guidelines to my colleagues in different local chapters to help them undertake cases. In some cases, I have contact with my clients directly by home visit or by telephone or email. For home visits, I and my colleagues from local chapters ride together by motorbike and have face to face meetings with clients.
My role involves many challenges such as:
· information relating to clients is often lost or is very minimal as a result of the war;
· clients details such as addresses, names, job may have been changed;
· delays in response due to lack of budget for travel and accommodation; and
· being overworked due to the responsibilities of several different jobs at the same time.
CHILD RIGHTS CORNER
International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
by Sally Szmerling, IPCA Social Worker, ISS Australia, National Office
March 21st was International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. This day seeks to raise awareness of the principles of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which states: “States Parties condemn racial discrimination and undertake to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating racial discrimination in all its forms and promoting understanding among all races”.
Unfortunately, racism affects many of the children ISS works with. For example, migrant children may be subject to racism by their new community or school. Or, the cultural identity of a child may be used by one parent as a point of conflict against the other parent, where the parents have two different cultural backgrounds and have separated. This can be very damaging for children, as they have a right to uphold and be proud of their culture, and this is integral to their development.
Similarly, children may be confused about their own cultural identity and struggle to come to terms with it in an environment that may be hostile to diverse cultures. It is thus important that parents validate children’s cultural identity and foster it into something the child can be proud of.
According to Article 29 (c) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, State Parties must promote respect for the cultural identity, language and values of children. ISS seeks to promote this through discussing the importance of children’s cultural identity with families who have separated and are experiencing conflict. ISS works with parents to encourage them to foster their child’s cultural identity positively.
CASE STUDY
Supporting the return of an abudcted child
by Damon Martin, NSW Service Coordinator, ISS Australia, NSW Office
Our client was referred to ISS by an Australian lawyer, who advised that a young mother in Europe required assistance during her visit to Sydney for a court hearing relating to an application under the Hague Convention for return of her child. The child had been retained in Australia by the father. The Central Authority asked ISS to support the mother while in Sydney, to make recommendations about the child’s needs, for example when he should leave the country, and to assist in the handover of the child to the mother.
ISS provided the courts in NSW with information on statutory child health checks required in the mother’s country and met with the mother to discuss her worries and anxieties about the handover process. ISS provided information about separation issues and what behaviours to expect from the child, as well as general parenting information.
ISS met with the mother and the Central Authority the day before the proposed handover in order to formulate a plan. During the handover ISS gathered information about the child and his needs, including medical information. ISS offered assistance to the mother to address the child’s medical needs as well as supporting the mother’s psychological well-being. ISS also spent a considerable amount of time observing the mother and child and assessing her parenting skills and their attachment. The child eventually returned to Europe with his mother where some further support was provided by ISS overseas.
ISS worked on this case intensively for a short period of time, providing specialised assistance to help the transition to occur smoothly. The case achieved a number of outcomes benefiting the clients including assisting them in accessing relevant information, services and support options and providing emotional and social support to the mother and her child.
All identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of ISS clients.
Contributions and Feedback Welcome
The ISS newsletter is 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.
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