NEWSLETTER Summer 2011

CFAB is reaching for the summit!

CFAB is a unique charity which works exclusively with beneficiaries in the UK where there are protection concerns that cross international borders www.cfab.uk.net

October is fast approaching!! A group of CFAB staff are embarking on the adventure of a life time – Hannah,Shaziah and Christina will be pushing their mental and physical capabilities to the limits as they begin climbing one of the tallest peaks in the world – Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania! Mount Kilimanjaro towers 5,985m above sea level and the gruelling trek will see the girls pass through rainforests, plateaus and icy peaks!

Hannah, Shaziah and Christina will be raising as much money as possible for the amazing work of Children and Families Across Borders. They will be counting on all of your support to reach the top. Any support you can give to this fantastic cause will make all the difference. The girls are very determined and excited about this adventure and updates on how training is going will be posted on the CFAB blog and facebook site so do follow their progress.

Please support the CFAB team today by donating whatever you can to this amazing cause and challenge.

Please visit the link below to visit our just giving page and donate today

http://www.justgiving.com/CFAB1

A huge thank you from us all.

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CFAB enjoys stunning night of Art and Antiques!

It was back in January 2011 when CFAB learnt that we had been selected as the beneficiary charity for a very special event - the First Night Party Art Antiques London. It is without a doubt the biggest fundraising event the charity has ever been involved in to date and was hugely exciting and challenging for the charity. A committee was formed led by Leni, Lady Miller and Mrs Allison McGrath and preperations towards June 8th began.

ART ANTIQUES LONDON is one of the most glamorous Art and Antiques Fairs in London. It brought together over 70 leading exhibitors from across the globe to showcase their work in one of the most spectacular venues in London - next to the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens. A marriage of quality and style ART ANTIQUES LONDON offers a range of the finest works of art from the traditional through to the modern and contemporary.

The First Night Party welcomed 500 people to a stunning champagne reception and private view of the Art Antiques Fair. 240 guests then stayed on for a wonderful 3 course dinner and entertainment by Lucinda Belle overlooking the beautiful Albert Memorial. The Dinner was prepared by Admiral Crichton and accompanied by superb fine wines. The evening saw a hugely successful live auction run by Humphrey Butler to raise funds for CFAB’s work with children and families. Prizes included weekend breaks, spa breaks, exclusive dining experiences and sporting occassions. Nancy Del’Ollio also drew the raffle after dinner for four lucky winners. Throughout the evening a full silent auction also took place with opportunites to enjoy entertaining evenings, food and wine experiences and special breaks plus much more!

The evening raised over £400,000 which is an amazing achievement and a wonderful success for the charity.

CFAB would like to extend their warmest thanks to the Haughtons for choosing CFAB as the beneficiary charity, and also to the Chairmen Leni, Lady Miller and Mrs Allison McGrath and the whole organising committee for all their hard work and dedication in making this evening such a success. It could not have been achieved without the vision, committment and support of so many people. Also a huge thank you to the volunteers who gave their time to help on the night. We are enormously grateful to you all! !

JUNE 8th 2011, ALBERT MEMORIAL, KENSINGTON GARDENS

Photographer - Tim Griffiths

Auctioneer Humphrey Butler

HE Mr Khaled Al-Duwaisan G.C.V.O. & Mrs Margarita Massanet

Dr Ali Sattaripour, Mrs Kumari Blakey, Leni, Lady Miller, Mrs Jane Rider, Mr Steve Rider

Leni, Lady Miller & Mrs Allison McGrath

Mrs Sarah Palmer, Mr Andy Elvin, Mrs Judy Chilton, Mr Mark Chilton

Mrs Nancy Del’Ollio & Mr David Collins

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Qatar Airways is offering two return Business Class tickets to any destination on the airline’s fast growing network, which now links to 100 destinations world-wide. The multi award-winning airline

has been voted as having the Best Business Class Service and Catering in the World by Skytrax.

The prize winner at this year’s International Spring Fair 2011 raffle will experience the airline’s 5-star dining on-demand or can pick from the à la carte menu in Business Class, which can be mixed and matched with a selection from Qatar Airways’ award-winning wine collection. Operating one of the world’s youngest airline fleets, Qatar Airways’ luxurious Business Class cabins are furnished with flat-bed seats with 8 in-set massage settings, meaning you’re sure to have a wonderful flight. For more information on Qatar Airways special offers please visit http://www.qatarairways.com/uk/en/special-offers-business.html

CFAB’s 52nd International Spring Fair!

so many countries. CFAB would like to sincerely thank everyone who volunteered and helped out over the two days to make the event such a success. A huge thank you to the organising committee chaired by Douglas Lewis. Next year we look forward to welcoming Lady Prue Davies as the new Chair of this event.

VOLUNTEERING for CFAB! The Internatioanal Spring Fair takes a lot of organistion from the committee and the volunteers who so kindly dedicate their time to helping out over the 2 days. We are always enormously lucky to have such a wondeful group of volunteers who dedicate their time and energy to CFAB for this event. From the raffle to the cloakroom, to selling tombola gifts, the team are wonderful and the fair would never be the success it is year on year wiithout the help of these volunteers. Thank you to you all.

We are always looking for volunteers to help out at events. If you are interested in volunteering for CFAB please contact us at info@cfab.uk.net. Get in touch with us today!

QHow long have you volunteered for the CFAB

Internationl Spring Fair ?

A I have been volunteering for Children and Families Across

Borders for about six years now. Can’t believe how time has flown! I am in charge of cordinating the restaurant area of the Spring Fair. This involves liasing with countries who wish to have a restaurant stall, organising the table plans and manageing the overall running of the 2 days.

Q Why do you volunteer for CFAB?

A I volunteer for CFAB as I believe that it is a worthy

charity and I share its sense of purpose

Q What do you enjoy about volunteering for the

Spring Fair?

A I enjoy the Spring Fair as it is always good fun and i always

meet so many interesting people. I love shopping there too as you can always see wonderful unusual things to buy. I also enjoy raising money for CFAB and being a part of that achievement.

Q The Spring Fair is always very hectic, how do you

keep a cool head?

A Planning is really important and thinking about any

possible challenges that might happen so that you are prepared for them. I am also extremely lucky to have such a wonderful team of helpers that are reliable and hardworking. A smile also goes a long way!

Qatar Competition!

Pauline Sieler

On 10th and 11th May Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall was transformed to host one of the most vibrant and colourful fairs in the London calendar. For two days over 80 countries participated in the 52nd International Spring Fair, selling produce unqiue to their countries. Guests were able to sample crafts, jewellery, food, and entertainment from all 4 corners of the globe. Upstairs hosted a culinery delight of cuisines from Japan to Italy to Mexico. Taste buds were given a real treat! Entertainment ranged from a Mexican Mariachi band to Angolan drummers and Guitarists from the Philippines. HRH Princess Alexandra visited on Wednesday and was seen buying many gifts from different stalls. We are always so grateful to HRH Princess Alexandra for her support each year at this

special event for us. We had fundraising activities including a Tombola, a silent auction and our famous raffle! Our raffle once again was undoubetdly one of the best raffles in London with two return Business Class flights to any Qatar Airways destination as the star prize. Qatar Airways are now running a competition giving you the chance to win more flights - please see opposite page for more details and your chance to win!

This year the Fair raised a wonderful £70,000 for the charity. An enormous thanks to all the countries that participated and worked so hard. Without the support of the Diplomatic community in London we wouldn’t be able to continue our work which involves

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Don’t forget to check out our blog

posts on the CFAB blog!

Read articles on ways to identify child

trafficking victims, facts on adoption,

and comments from our CEO Andy

Elvin on news articles... plus lots more!

Visit it today !

www.cfab.uk.net/blog

At the end of May 2011 CFAB said goodbye to three students from Greenwich University who had completed a 100 day placement with the organisation. Each student was supervised by one of our Inter Country Social Workers. Stefanie Ahelmann gives her account on what is was like to supervise and work with her student.

Having a student was a great experience as I am very interested in putting my own work experience into practice. By giving advice I was able to offer information, opinions and recommendations based on my own knowledge and abilities.

My role was to mentor the student about the culture of the placement and to explain the background to certain methods. I also provided regular supervision and led case discussions. I also undertook sessions with my student about social pedagogical methods, and the student had the opportunity to visit other organisations we work with, such as the FCO and NSPCC.

By guiding a student I was able to demonstrate professional authority as well as being able to explain and reflect my own professional practice.

I learnt a lot from being a supervisor, not least the fact the student can have different expectations to me. As a student she observed me as her practice teacher from many different criterias. This expectation was important for me to be a successful practice teacher.

CFAB will continue to host students in 2012 working with Greenwich University.

CFAB’s Trafficking

SymposiumOn 6th July 2011 at Friends House Euston, CFAB held a very successful child trafficking symposium. The day welcomed over 50 delegates all with a keen interest in child trafficking, to work together to come up with proposals to improve safeguarding this vulnerable group of children This was done by looking at the child’s journey to the UK, the response to trafficked children once they are in the UK and the issues surrounding possible returns to their country of origin. CFAB feels this group of children could be better protected and that although the correct systems for child protection are in place, they could work better. Delegates ranged from government departments to Local Authorities, the Police and other NGOs.

The day was opened by Jim Gamble former Chief Executive of CEOP and was followed by a series of expert speakers including Nadine Finch of Garden Court Chambers, Phillip Ishola of the London Borough of Harrow, Paul Rigby of Glasgow City Council, Sarah Wood from Metropolitan Police and Karen Sizeland from ECPAT. Then round table discussions took place to discuss certain questions, which were then brought together and concluded at the end of the day.

The day produced some very good recommendations which will now be presented to the relevant government departments. Updates on our progress will be given as developments are made.

For more information please visit our website at www.cfab.uk.net

Students

Programme

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Our Libya Family Reunion Project

As you will know CFAB has for many years run a yearly trip to Libya for Mothers and extended family members to see their children who have been abducted to Libya by their fathers.

Our thoughts at this difficult time are with the children and their families in Libya and their mother’s and relatives in the UK. As far as we can determine our contacts and supporters in Libya are well and we watch developments keenly. Due to the conflict taking place throughout the country, this year’s Libya trip has had to be cancelled.

At the conclusion of the current conflict we will seek to work with whichever Government emerges in Libya in order to continue our work there.

Possibilities for the future are being explored and there has been an approach recently from the Higher Committee for Children in Libya, (who were our original partners when the Project began), suggesting the possibility of co-operation, but communication is not always easy as the conflict continues. Future visits will depend on an evaluation of the possibilities once greater stability is achieved in the country.

Private Fostering Update At the end of last year, CFAB partnered with a Local Authority to conduct research into private fostering. The aim of the research was to get a clearer understanding of private fostering arrangements of children from overseas, and identify key areas that need to be highlighted and tackled when dealing with them in private fostering arrangements, with particular reference to safeguarding issues. The research is divided into two parts. The first involved auditing the case files of overseas children in private fostering arrangements known

to the Local Authority. The audit revealed some interesting findings which helped formulate a number of recommendations to the Local Authority to improve practice. The emphasis was on improving notification rates, identifying the needs of the children and ensuring that the assessment and review process reflected this and the best interests of the children birth parents were not left out of the equation.

The research will now commence the second part which involves interviewing the children themselves to get a clearer understanding of their experiences in a private fostering arrangement. Very little research into private fostering has included the children’s voices and we feel this is key in getting a clearer understanding on this issue. Because children are generally classified for research purposes as a vulnerable population, CFAB has partnered with academics in ensuring that the research is ethically sound. Preparation for this is currently underway.

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CFAB is always seeking funding for projects like this as we continually seek to expand the charity. If you would like to discuss the work of CFAB and opportunities for ongoing support. Please contact Hannah Moran, Campaign Appeal Director on 020 7735 8941 or hannah.moran@cfab.uk.net

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CFAB Free Training RoadshowThe CFAB Roadshow continues to move forward with over 20 Local Authorities receiving training over the last 10 months. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

Excellent, informative and stimulating presentation – best training this year! Essex Social Worker

Really informative and I have learnt a lot in 2 hours. Lively and interactive approach by really skilled and knowledgeable trainers. Barking and Dagenham Social Worker

The CFAB specialist training touches on all aspects of international social work, including child trafficking and private fostering. It highlights some simple and effective measures professionals can take to safeguard children across borders and ensure, where appropriate, that children in care have the opportunity to be considered to live with family members overseas. By the end of the session we hope professionals will have gained more awareness and confidence when dealing with international cases in their departments.

Please get in touch at info@cfab.uk.net to be sent more information and details of how to book.

We are now taking bookings for 2012!

CFAB will also be offering bespoke half day and full day training packages on issues such as child trafficking, children in care and private fostering. For more details please get in touch.

Children and Families Across BordersUnti 1.03 Canterbury Court

1-3 Brixton RoadLondon

SW9 6DE

Tel: 020 7735 8941 Fax: 020 7582 0696 Email: info@cfab.uk.net

www.cfab.uk.net

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