Dare2Care – A New Website About Child Protection By Sarah Champion MP

It was an indication of their commitment that, despite the snow storms, dozens of activists joined Sarah Champion MP in her Westminster office for the launch today (Tuesday 27 February) of  Dare2Care, an online resource which focuses on the prevention of child abuse in the UK.
Sarah is the MP for Rotherham, a constituency which has seen multiple and very severe instances of grooming and other child abuse. Learning about these crimes must surely have been one of the reasons why she is so determined to help stop harm to children.

Amongst those who spoke at this event were two Rotherham constituents with different stories to tell who, in different and awful ways, have experienced the damage which grooming can cause to young girls and to entire families. The years-long nightmares which both these parents had to go through before their stories were believed makes very painful hearing.

As Sarah said:

I launched the Dare2Care campaign to facilitate debate about how we can challenge child abuse, provide information, raise awareness and change policy. Dare2Care aims to ensure that every child is safe from abuse and that the normalisation of violence in young people’s relationships is challenged.

The campaign has already achieved success, with the government announcing plans to introduce relationships education for all children from Key Stage One, but there is still much to do.

Working with leading charities, organisations and individuals, I have gathered information and resources for parents and professionals together to create this website.

The Dare2Care website is a one-stop site for support on how to talk to our children about healthy relationships and online safety, and information on how to spot the signs of, and how to report, online abuse and relationship violence.

The website however goes beyond a focus on ‘only’ one sort of harm to children. Also considered by other speakers were the issues of online dangers such as sexting, online pornography and, for instance, relationship education (PSHRE – a concern for me right back to the 1980s), as well as FGM (female genital mutilation). In each case, the Dare2Care website offers information and support for parents, young people, professionals and others with a concern to end child abuse.

Also included are lists of resources and blogs on each topic. (I was pleased to provide this commentary on The effects of austerity cuts on the fight against FGM.)

Discussion after the presentations between those attending offers much hope for the future. This resource is keyed in to the TwentyFirst Century; complex concerns around the IT which can both enable and also bring to order online hazards and abuse are as much part of the conversation as now widely established ‘on the ground’ child protection issues.

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Books by Hilary Burrage on female genital mutilation

* Eradicating Female Genital Mutilation: A UK Perspective (Hilary Burrage, Ashgate / Routledge 2015).   Full contents and reviews   HERE.

* FEMALE MUTILATION: The truth behind the horrifying global practice of female genital mutilation  (Hilary Burrage, New Holland Publishers 2016).   Full contents and reviews   HERE.

FURTHER INFORMATION AND ACTION

There is a free FGM hotline for anyone in the UK: 0800 028 3550, or email:fgmhelp@nspcc.org.uk

Details of NHS Specialist Services for FGM here.

More info and posts on FGM here.

Activists, service providers and researchers may like to join the LinkedIn group Female Genital Mutilation (FGM): Information, reports and research, which has several hundred members from around the world.

The (free) #NoFGM Daily News carries reports of all items shared on Twitter that day about FGM – brings many organisations and developments into focus.

Also available to follow at no cost or obligation is the #NoFGM_USA Daily News.

Twitter accounts:          @NoFGM_UK  @NoFGMBookUK @FemaleMutlnBook  @FGMStatement  @NoFGM_USA @NoFGM_Kenya  @NoFGM_France  @GuardianEndFGM [tag for all: #NoFGM] and @StopMGM.

Facebook page: #NoFGM – a crime against humanity

Email contact: via Hilary

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[NB The Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children, which has a primary focus on FGM, is clear that in formal discourse any term other than ‘mutilation’ concedes damagingly to the cultural relativists – though the terms employed may of necessity vary in informal discussion with those who by tradition use alternative vocabulary. See the Feminist Statement on the Naming and Abolition of Female Genital Mutilation,  The Bamako Declaration: Female Genital Mutilation Terminology and the debate about Anthr/Apologists on this website.]

PLEASE NOTE:

This article concerns approaches to the eradication specifically of FGM.  I am also categorically opposed to MGM, but that is not the focus of this particular piece.

Anyone wishing to offer additional comment on more general considerations around infant and juvenile genital mutilation is asked please to do so via these relevant dedicated threads.

Discussion of the general issues re M/FGM will not be published unless they are posted on these dedicated pages. Thanks.