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Showing posts from April, 2010
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Victoria Adjo Climbié had a smile to remember. Ten years this February, she was murdered by her guardians in London. The once happy little eight-year old girl from Ivory Coast had suffered a catalog of abuse right up to her death in February 2000. A United Kingdom- government inquiry reported that there were 12 missed chances to save her. All the agencies and people with power to do something —the police, social services department of many local authorities, the National Health Service, the NSPCC, and local churches—had failed. All of them had noted the abuse and done nothing. Victoria was found with 128 separate injuries when she died. Since then, the U.K. government has done much to protect children. Part of their plans included working with London's African communities that develop and strengthen community-based preventive activities in this field. AFRUCA was one of them. Established in response to the need for support at a grassroots level, Africans United Against Child Abu