April 15, 2016, by Charlotte Anscombe

How do children in conflict and the refugee crisis respond to their situations?

For children who move from their countries of origin to new countries, there are many risks, challenges and opportunities.

Professor Ravi Kohli, a Professor of Child Welfare at the University of Bedfordshire will be visiting The University of Nottingham next week to hold a public lecture and workshop looking at the notion that children who are forced migrants move in three dimensions.

Professor Kohli says: “Firstly, they make journeys across geographical spaces. Secondly, they move across time, getting older as they go, amassing experiences and memories of where they have been. Thirdly, they move psychologically in different directions, arranging their stories of who they are, what happened to them, and how they came to be asking for sanctuary.

“These movements in inner and outer worlds require energy and will in order to feel coordinated and harmonised, and to settle in a country where protection is present legally, practically and psychologically in the short and long term. Yet the management of these movements is seldom possible without the orchestrated commitment of helpers, whose ethics, skills and expert knowledge need to be deployed carefully to assist children on the move.

“The purpose of assistance is itself about ensuring such children can generate a sense of being ‘at home’ in safe and durable ways wherever they are located in countries of life long settlement. So, I consider how the fluid nature of their circumstances can be given some solid hope within the meaning of Article 3 of the UNCRC. In that respect, I examine how practical projects help them to rebuild an ordinary future, after their extraordinary journeys, within contexts that are both protective and dangerous.”

If you are interest in attending the lecture and workshop – ‘Children in Conflict and the refugee Crisis’ – it is being held at Highfield House, The University of Nottingham University Park Campus on Wednesday 20^th April from 6pm.

 You can book your place for the public lecture at Eventbrite.

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