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Kids: need plenty of support

Children’s agency calls for regulation of faith sector

A leading African child support agency is calling for the implementation of a regulation service to monitor the faith sector.

AFRUCA (Africans Unite Against Child Abuse) last week called on the government to create a regulatory body to monitor those working in any place of worship.

The charity’s call was put forward in response to a report from the Department for Education and Skills and echoed at a conference on child abuse, held last week in London.

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AFRUCA director Debbie Ariyo, explained that the monitoring service was “necessary for churches”.

The charity faulted the DfES for failing to “highlight the role of faith organisations in diagnosing child victims and in carrying out exorcism rites on children and adults alike.

“While we do not have any reasons to denounce any faith organisation, nor are we attempting to do so, we know that a lot of children and their families have fallen victim to the allure and deceit of rogue pastors who wrongly, or without apparent reasons, diagnose people as witches and carry out bogus exorcism rites mainly for self gain and personal recognition.”

Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Spindler of Operation Violet, the specialist branch of the Metropolitan Police targeting child abuse, told The Voice that child abuse within the black and minority ethnic community was a small but significant one.

He explained: “There’s 1.6 million children in London and 40 per cent come from black or minority ethnic minorities. We get 10,000 allegations per year and of that 8,000 cases.”

He continued: “Twenty per cent of what we deal with is sexual abuse, 50 per cent is physical abuse, and 30 per cent is neglect. When you get into which communities we’re dealing with – 27 per cent are from African or Caribbean families, and 10 per cent from Asian background. Thirty eight per cent are from white European backgrounds and 19 per cent is unclear.

“There’s significant underreporting in child abuse and that’s what we want the churches to help with. A small number of cases have been sensationalised in the media.”

Spindler explained that greater collaboration was needed between churches and the police, but vetting procedures might not be effective.

“We want the churches to be as vigilant as other parts of society, to have their own safeguarding policies,” he said.

“Victoria Climbie is a great example. The church knew what was going on, there were opportunities for people to report, but people didn’t know how to report it.

“If people are going to be working with children they should be vetted with criminal records. The problem is that if they haven’t been in this country for long, we are not going to have any information on them.”

However Congolese Reverend Jean Bosco Kanyemesha said that churches welcomed the implementation of new procedures provided they did not usurp the role of the church.

“We agree with every procedure that can raise the church and the Christian community if it doesn’t go against the Bible and the principle of God. We welcome every step that the government or public protection can take to secure the work that we are doing and not harming the church or taking it out of its place.”

He added: “Most of the things happening in the community is not related to the church but is related to the culture of the people – the way they have been raised, and the way they have bee educated.”

Commenting on the DfES report, Children and Families Minister Beverley Hughes said: “Abuse linked with a belief in ‘witchcraft’ will not be tolerated. While thankfully the number of cases is relatively small, the abuse children suffer in such cases is truly horrific.

“Child abuse can never be acceptable in any culture, any community, in any circumstance. We have already stepped up action to identify more easily and quickly those children at risk of abuse linked to belief in ‘possession’ or ‘witchcraft’ and help prevent it happening in the first place.

“This must be tackled at local level through joint work between children’s services, police, community, and faith organisations.”

Published: 17 July 2006
Issue: 1227

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