Beyond words and labels

“A really unwanted result of our Seminar would be to mainstream the idiom CSS (for “Children in Street Situations”), and to hear it on any occasion like one more set of initials.”
Those were the words of Ms Irene Rizzini, the Course Director, at the time of closing the debates, words that expressed her distrust towards any attempt to label the children.

On the opposite, the follow-up this Seminar must have, is a new commitment in the heart of every participant to continue sharing with others their observations and reflections. Replacing words by words is not enough, we must constantly reflect on ideologies behind, on dominant notions of children and child well-being.

In the mark of an issue like children in street situations, the debate can be simplified and based on what we DO NOT WANT.

Lobbying and prevention
After the workshop reports and the conclusion, a panel made up of specialist from various continents and honoured by the presence of Prof. emeritus Riccardo Lucchini debated the specificities of childhood in difficulty proper to each region of the world. From the Latino American “maras” to the “talibés” and domestic girls on the African continent, from the refugee children in South-East Asia to the little Albanian beggars in Greece, all those expressions of the phenomenon of children in street situations reveal the absence of coherent policies at the executive level.
The fate of these children must accordingly be set high up in political agendas, and the tragedy of stolen childhood must be addressed and prevented.

We’ll see you next year
Please book from 14^th to 18^th  October 2008 for our Seminar on “The rights of Child Victims and Witnesses.”