International Women’s Day is a great opportunity to celebrate so many amazing women who have made a difference to our world. And, for me, to remember with gratitude the many incredible women I have had the privilege to know.
It is also an opportunity to recognise the ongoing violence and abuse that affects so many women and girls across the world.
The statistics are horrific.
But even more salutary are the individual stories that lie behind those statistics – salutary not just because of the appalling circumstances so many women and girls have to live with, but also because of the amazing courage, resilience and hope that they embody.
Today also marks one month till our 2018 BASPCAN international child protection congress. And, as it approaches, I am looking forward to it more and more. And not least because of some of the incredible women whom we have lined up as speakers.
People like:
Elaine Storkey, former president of Tearfund, and long-standing campaigner for women’s rights, who has powerfully documented the reality of violence against women and girls in her book, Scars across Humanity
Clare Shaw, our poet in residence, whose poems reflect the depth of expertise held by someone who has walked with trauma
Siobhan Beckwith, whose talk, Hearts in the Goldfish Bowl, draws on her experience coming alongside mothers who have had to live apart from their children
Kish Bhatti-Sinclair, a reader in social policy and social work, who will be challenging us to rethink our own prejudices, discrimination and unconscious bias
Anne Fine, the celebrated author, whose novels capture, in a very human way, the reality of many children’s lives
There are so many more I could mention. And I’m really looking forward to meeting them and hearing what they have to say.
It is not too late to book, so do take a look at the programme on our congress website: