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The Children’s Institute started 2007 with great anticipation, as this year holds exciting new staff developments and, in the policy and law reform arena, continued moves towards the realisation of children’s rights.
The make-up of the CI team saw several changes in the last six months. We have had to say goodbye to three much-loved staff members who were offered exciting opportunities for career development, but have welcomed three new senior managers onto the team.
Acting director Maylene Shung-King is pursuing a PhD at the University of Oxford, Child Poverty Programme manager Annie Leatt has started a PhD at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, while Prinslean Mahery, a researcher in the Child Rights Programme, has moved to the Centre for Child Law at the University of Pretoria to work on child rights litigation.
The CI has been very fortunate to recruit three new managers who bring unique skills and experiences to the multi-disciplinary CI team. Prof. Shirley Pendlebury takes up the post as CI director in April, while, towards the end of 2006, Dr. Bev Draper was appointed the Child Health Services Programme manager and Dr. Johannes John-Langba the Child Poverty Programme manager. The centre-fold of this edition of Child Rights in Focus presents short profiles of the staff changes during this time, though two merit mentioning here:
Acting director Maylene Shung-King, one of the CI’s longest serving staff members, is taking a much-needed break from management responsibilities to further her academic development. She has received the prestigious Oxford Nuffield Medical Fellowship at Oxford, where she will be based for the next three years while doing a PhD in Social Policy. We are very proud of this achievement and look forward to collaborations with Oxford University.
The CI director designate, Prof. Shirley Pendlebury, is a Professor of Education and currently head of the Division of Curriculum at the University of the Witwatersrand, and has held several senior management portfolios within the Faculty of Humanities and the legacy Faculty Education at Wits. She brings with her a wealth of experience and knowledge on the inner-workings of academia. With Shirley’s arrival we particularly look forward to developments in the CI’s academic outputs and of staff’s academic careers.
Other news that we report on in this newsletter include:
- Children involved in the Children’s Bill process reflect on their participation in the making of this law, while public participation in the Children’s Amendment Bill continues at a fast pace in the provincial parliaments.
- The spotlight falls on children and poverty with the release of the South African Child Gauge 2006.
- The CI’s advocacy during the Firearms Amendment Bill hearings highlights the effects of gun violence on children, and with calls for stricter gun control.
- An exciting research project on residential care is soon to release its findings at a time when the Children’s Amendment Bill is proposing a new legislative framework for child and youth care centres.
- CI legal researcher, Mira Dutschke, reflects on her internship at the United Nations in New York, while Prinslean Mahery discusses how working at the Institute enriched her legal research skills.
- The latest CI publications that are available to order or download online.
With this newsletter we also want to extend our best wishes for 2007 to our readers. We look forward to continue working with you, and welcome your feedback on the newsletter, our projects and products.
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