10th Anniversary Edition of Girls’ Night In

Posted on 05. Oct, 2010 by administrator in News, Updates

Girls Night In 10th Anniversary EditionThe Bumper Tenth Anniversary Edition of Girls’ Night In will be released in Australia on 25 October!

This edition brings together much-loved stories from the previous four books by some of the biggest names in women’s fiction – Marian Keyes, Candace Bushnell, Cathy Kelly and Maggie Alderson, to name a few.

Have fun and do good at the same time – by buying this book you’ll be helping kids caught up in the turmoil of war, with all royalties going to War Child, a charity that funds projects for children in areas of conflict.

So grab a cup of tea and reserve a place on the couch to enjoy all the comedy, romance, adventure and drama of some of the best short fiction on offer.

Kids’ Night In Launch Events

Posted on 14. Sep, 2009 by administrator in News, Updates

Kids’ Night In III launches in Australia in the following locations:

  • SYDNEY: Mosman Community Centre on October 1st;
  • LAUNCESTON: Fuller’s Launceston October 23rd,
  • HOBART: Fuller’s Hobart October 24th and
  • MELBOURNE: Melbourne State Library October 30th

War Child Music

Posted on 14. Sep, 2009 by administrator in Updates

Don’t forget War Child’s record-breaking iTunes downloads in aid of the charity at http://www.warchild.org.uk/music

Girls’ Night In – Now iPhone compatible

Posted on 12. Sep, 2009 by administrator in Updates

The Girls’ Night In Official blog is now iPhone compatible.

With the lastest round of updates to the Girls’ Night In Official website, the site has become mobile phone compatible.  Web-enabled mobile phones can get the latest blog updates from the Girls’ Night In website in the mobile phone format.

A tribute to Juliet Partridge

Posted on 30. Sep, 2008 by administrator in News, Updates

Patricia Adams (Jessica Adams’ mother) delivered this tribute at Juliet’s memorial service, on behalf of Jessica and the other Kids’ Night In editors (September 2008)

We’d like to honour Juliet, a team editor on the bestselling Kids’ Night In series, in aid of the children’s charity War Child. Juliet was the author of many children’s books in her own right, and a respected editor. Thus, we still feel incredibly lucky that she gave so much time and energy helping ot make Kids’ Night In a success in Australia, England and Japan. War Child hs received almost half a million dollars from sales of the anthologies in this country alone.

A few weeks before she left us, a third book in the series was announced. It was typical of Juliet that she wanted to help, even though she was so ill at the time. We will really miss her generosity and her brilliant ideas on book three, but we are also happy on her behalf that the series is continuing.

The work that Juliet did with us helped raise money for a number of War Child projects, including the rehabilitation of child soldiers in the Congo. The publication of Kids’ Night In also led to a project to help resupply the school libraries of the Solomon Islands.

We miss you Juliet, but we also know that thanks to you, life goes on for thousands of children around the world – and these amazing books go on too.

Jessica Adams, Nick Earls, Helen Basini and Sara Foster,
Kids’ Night In

Juliet’s family asked that, instead of flowers or other tributes, family and friends donate to War Child Australia. Thanks to all those who donated so generously at the memorial service. If you need to arrange a receipt for tax purposes, please contact War Child Australia’s treasurer, Emily Teh, at emilyteh@warchild.org.au.

If you’d still like to donate in Juliet’s memory, please forward cheques or money orders to:
War Child Australia
PO Box Q551
QVB NSW 1230

If you need a receipt, please make sure you include your contact details with your cheque or money order. If you make your donation by direct deposit or PayPal please send your details (including the date that you submitted the donation) to our treasurer, Emily Teh, at emilyteh@warchild.org.au.

Ladies’ Night

Posted on 07. Nov, 2005 by administrator in Press Releases

Edited by Chris Manby, Jessica Adams, Imogen Edwards-Jones and Maggie Alderson

PAPERBACK ORIGINAL Published: 7 November 2005, Price £6.99

Following the bestselling short story collections Girls’ Night In and Girls’ Night Out/Boys’ Night In and Big Night Out, comes the biggest and best anthology yet in aid of the international charities War Child and No Strings. Ladies’ Night is brimming with stories from some of today’s best-known writers.

Contributors include: Cecelia Ahern, Lisa Armstrong, Meg Cabot, Mike Gayle, Wendy Holden, Cathy Kelly, Helen Lederer, Kathy Lette, Anna Maxted, Santa Montefiore, Elizabeth Noble, Freya North, Adele Parks and Fiona Walker. All the contributors have donated their work, and at least one pound from every copy of Ladies’ Night sold will be shared by War Child and No Strings.

So far the previous books have raised over £1 million for War Child. Since it was founded in 1993, War Child has alleviated the suffering of tens of thousands of children throughout the world. Income from the first three books in the series has created safe, mine-free play areas for children throughout the Balkans, provided wind-up radios to isolated children growing up alone in post-genocide Rwanda, life-saving medicines in Southern Sudan, clothing for children displaced by the civil war in Angola, a field bakery in Herat, Afghanistan, playgrounds and fully equipped classrooms in Southern Iraq and abandoned children’s centres in Democratic Republic of Congo.

It currently works long term with the most often ignored children at the edge of some of the world’s most violent societies. No Strings is a new aid organisation whose mission is to provide life-saving help and education to at-risk children in developing countries, using puppetry. It combines the skill of people at the very top of their professional field pairing some of the world’s leading puppeteers alongside extremely experienced aid-sector. War Child receives tremendous support from a great many well-known figures such as Marianne Faithfull, Billy Bragg, Keane and Baaba Maal . No Strings is supported by Patrons, Neil Morrissey and Hugo Speer. E

ditor Jessica Adams writes: “When the Girls’ Night In series was born at The Groucho Club at the end of the 1990s nobody knew it would make so much money for War Child – nor that it would outsell Harry Potter and The Beatles on the Australian bestseller lists, or see a spin-off series in the USA. In fact, not every publisher was convinced the idea was for them at all – and Chris Manby, Fiona Walker and I certainly didn’t envisage a quartet of books. Since then, though, a range of editors and contributors have taken their turn helping out with the series each year, and we have been lucky enough to involve everyone from Bob Geldof and Marian Keyes to Jamie Oliver, via Candace Bushnell and Nick Hornby. Another thing none of us knew was coming in 1999 was the vital part that War Child would come to play in Afghanistan and Iraq – all of which has made the revenue from the books a lifeline to vulnerable children.

This year’s collection, Ladies’ Night, takes us back to the all-female line-up we started with all those years ago – with the odd “But I’m a lady!” contribution as well, from old friends like Mike Gayle. In fact, one of the nicest things about these books is the way people keep coming back to donate their time. This includes, naturally, my fellow editors – Chris Manby (also editing for the USA), Maggie Alderson (who gave birth to a daughter during book three) and Imogen Edwards-Jones (whose baby daughter arrived as we were finishing book four.)

I really hope you like this year’s collection. We love it. And this year, we are also happy to donate funds to a new charity called No Strings as well, which uses the talents of the original Muppets team to help with educational puppetry programs for children in land mined areas around the world. For more on the international offices of both War Child and No Strings please visit www.warchild.org.uk and www.nostrings.org.uk. Thanks!”

Katie Espiner, Editor of HarperCollins writes: We are delighted to be publishing our fourth anthology in the bestselling Girls’ Night series. We have an absolutely stellar line-up of talent for Ladies’ Night. Everyone involved has been so generous with their time and their contributions and we’re confident that this collection will go on to raise yet more vital funds for these two important charities.

Julian Carrera, PR manager of War Child writes: War Child believes that children should never be affected by armed conflict regardless of any justification put forward for it. We work with some of the most marginalised children around the world – children abducted into militias at the age of ten in DRC, left with learning difficulties years after the Bosnian conflict’s end, scattered to the streets in Iraq and imprisoned in adult detention centres in Afghanistan. The Girls’ Night In series is firmly part of our world – and we are forever grateful for the support of Jessica, Harper Collins and the rest of the team!

Rosie Waller, Marketing and Events of No Strings writes: No Strings is an aid organisation which uses puppetry to deliver fun, engaging, but crucially, life-saving messages to some of the world’s most vulnerable children. It combines the skills of some of the world’s leading puppeteers from the original Muppets team with an extremely experienced humanitarian aid sector. No Strings is currently involved in projects in Afghanistan, teaching children how to avoid the dangers of the landmines which are everywhere in that country, and Sri Lanka, where puppets will be used to deliver a number of vital messages i.e. emergency response to psycho-social issues and landmines.

Future projects will help refugees of the Darfur crisis in Sudan and Chad. Full line up of contributors: Jessica Adams, Cecelia Ahern, Maggie Alderson, Lisa Armstrong, Tilly Bagshawe, Faith Bleasdale, Elizabeth Buchan, Meg Cabot, Jill Davis, Stella Duffy, Imogen Edwards-Jones, Harriet Evans, Mike Gayle, Kristin Gore, Lauren Henderson, Wendy Holden, Belinda Jones, Louise Kean, Cathy Kelly, Helen Lederer, Kathy Lette, Gay Longworth, Chris Manby, Carole Matthews, Anna Maxted, Karen Moline, Santa Montefiore, Elizabeth Noble, Freya North, Adele Parks, Victoria Routledge, Louise Voss, Fiona Walker, Daisy Waugh, Isabel Wolff, Deborah Wright

All media enquiries should be directed to:

For Irish media enquiries contact:

Notes to Editors:

  • Please reference Ladies’ Night will be published on 7 November 2005 by HarperCollins at £6.99. At least £1.00 from every book sold will be donated on an equal share basis to War Child and No Strings.
  • Extract rights for Ladies’ Night are available. To discuss extracts (proceeds going to War Child and No Strings), please contact Camilla Goslett at Curtis Brown on 020 7393 4424 or email CamillaG@curtisbrown.co.uk
  • By buying this book you have already given 50 pence to War Child and No Strings. If you would like to invest more please send donations to: War Child, 5-7 Anglers Lane, London NW5 3DG or No Strings, Charles Storer, Treasurer, 18 High Street, Ingatestone, Essex, CM4 9EE.
  • For further information on War Child please contact Julian Carrera on 020 7916 9276 or on No Strings please contact Johnie McGlade or Rosie Waller on johnie@nostrings.org.uk and rosie@nostrings.org.uk

‘Night In’ books: how these have helped War Child

Posted on 11. Oct, 2005 by administrator in News, Updates

Since 2000 The Girls Night In, Boys Night In, Kids Night In and Big Night Out books have generated income for War Child (www.warchild.org.uk) of over 1.1 million pounds. We are also very excited about the fundraising possibilities around the release of Midnight Feast in 2007.

The money these books have raised has enabled War Child to help a vast number of children in many of the world’s least safe, most violent places. This help has taken the form of practical on-the-ground action and, increasingly targeted campaigning work: lobbying government and influential institutions to change policy and institutionalise long-term change for the better for the children War Child works with, and the Night In series has benefited.

 

2000 – 2004

Between 2000 and 2004 War Child, with the support of funds raised by the Night In series, worked in most of the major sites of conflict around the world. Some of our notable programmes included

mass feeding projects in refugee camps in Iraq and Afghanistan an education programme for orphaned children in rural Rwanda – these children were given wind up radios and schools programmes were broadcast to them Music therapy in Bosnia. War Child has worked in, and continues to this day, Bosnia since 1993. Our music therapy programme in the divided city of Mostar has brought social interaction through the joy of music to many hundreds of children

Occupied Palestinian Territories: In 2002, War Child began to provide funding for the Holy Family Children’s home and maternity hospital in Bethlehem.
Safe play areas in Kosovo, Rwanda and Iraq
Education programmes in Phillipines, East Timor, Sudan and Serbia

Since its inception in 1993, War Child has worked in Kosovo, Serbia, Albania, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Northern Kenya, Southern Sudan, Chechnya, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Philippines, East Timor, Angola, Afghanistan, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Palestine and Iraq.

 

2005 – 2006: and into 2007

Increasingly our work in conflict and post-conflict zones is taking on a long-term, structural form. A great example of this transition is embodied in our work with ex-child soldiers in Democratic Republic of Congo.

At the end of 2004, as part of a UNICEF-funded programme of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, we funded our local partners to remove 500 children from the military transport aircraft on their way to the frontline in the East. Through our continued work with these children, we have been able to identify ways of overcoming the significant challenges to properly reintegrating them with their families and communities.

These children return from the war battle-scarred and unwelcome. They are viewed as dangerous, as an economic burden and live — literally — on the margins of their communities. These children are not alone: there are thousands of them. They share their experiences with each other – reinforcing the perception of them as a growing threat, which marginalises them further. Because of the remoteness and inaccessibility of these communities, and the actual marginalisation of the children themselves, they are often invisible to humanitarian agencies and so are overlooked.

In 2005, War Child conducted research with these children to reveal what was needed beyond reunification to ensure that they are successfully reintegrated within their families and their communities. We discovered that not all children were going home and that a significant proportion who had been reunited were leaving their family home primarily due to the added economic burden they represented to their families, or because of very negative attitudes towards them from their peers and other community members.

With your help we are working with child protection community networks that aim to make reintegration more relevant by establishing income-generating activities, giving these children livelihood grants to establish themselves as active members of their communities. Starting with those who have the greatest responsibilities – those who have returned home with young partners and babies – War Child is allocating business start up grants in an effort to give these children agency in a society which has turned its back on them.

This type of long-term programme, aspiring to creating the sort of social and structural change that will benefit children affected by conflict long-term is echoed many thousands of miles away in our work in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In Afghanistan, rejected by parents and family members, many Afghan children try to survive on the streets by the means of petty crimes. Because of the chaos of the judicial system and a poor understanding of juvenile justice, these children are put into adult prisons; an unsuitable place for any child. Upon release, a strong social stigma results in many of these children being rejected by their families, leaving them with no carer. As a result these children often re-offend.

War Child actively negotiates the release of these children and in 2005 succeeded in separating boys held in detention from adults and housing them in a specific children’s detention centre. The centre offers access to educational material, art and sports equipment and they can take English lessons. War Child representatives visit the detention centre on a weekly basis and seek to reunite and reintegrate as many children as possible with their families. Last year 500 children benefited from the programme. Many of the boys have gone on to better things, some are now in formal employment; a few of the better off have continued their education.

War Child spent six weeks in November and December last year investigating further the lives of such vulnerable children. Children in detention are often consumed with fear as to what will happen when they are released, but with War Child’s new family liaison programme, our staff are hoping to persuade these children’s families that their children deserve to resume their life with dignity. We also will be providing training in the prison that will allow the children to earn money to contribute to their families on release.

War Child also shared its findings with the religious leaders of Herat — no higher authority in the region — who have agreed to advocate for these girls and their return home. Starting earlier this year, the weekly mosque sermons stress the rights of these children to acceptance and forgiveness by their family and the community. “These are the children of us all,” said the leading mullah of Herat, “and we all have a duty to forgive and welcome them home.”

The Marsh Arab community of Dhi Qar Province, southern Iraq, has been systematically marginalized over the last fifteen years. After the First Gulf War (1991) Saddam Hussein aggressively revived a program to divert the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers away from the marshes in retribution for a failed Shi’a uprising. The plan also systematically converted the wetlands into a desert, forcing the Marsh Arabs out of their settlements in the region. Less than 5% of the marshes remain today although they are returning: but soil salinisation presents real problems in re-establishing agriculture and in developing livelihoods for families returning from exile in Iran. The region is marked by political instability, environmental uncertainty, high unemployment and dependency on food rations. This has had a disastrous impact on children in the region: increased malnutrition, rising infant mortality, increased exposure to violence, lack of access to basic education and health facilities and limited scope for hope.

War Child is working with a local partner organisation across 15 villages in the south to establish and develop child friendly communities through small business and child protection grants. We have helped to rebuild the links between the communities and their district councils in order to enable them to lever in vital services — not least health and education. This is the only programme of its kind in south Iraq and War Child is now the only child protection agency operating in this region.

Finally, and in partnership with a small number of like minded organizations, one of our key achievements in 2005 was negotiating the Convention on the Rights of the Child into the new Iraqi constitution. This will provide the basis upon which child protection and the rights of children can be promoted and secured into the future.

It is this sort of dual approach to our work in the field (practical action and working for policy change) that now characterises our programmes. Consequently, this approach is strengthened by our attitude to working in the UK. In 2005 and 2006, for the first time, War Child has formally entered into the world of lobbying. Supported by our award-winning campaigning – working in the education sector, developing a calendar of fund- and awareness-raising events, developing a network of influential businesspeople and constructing an online profile second to none – we are lobbying specific parliamentarians and government departments to change their attitudes towards those children most marginalised by conflict.

To date, we published two highly acclaimed reports about the children we work with, we have developed deeply-rooted relations with two Parliamentary interest groups, began to discuss the issues facing ex-child soldiers with Secretary of State for International Development, conducted an immensely successful presentation to the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Street Children and have committed a set of MPs from this group to accompany us on a fact-finding mission to Democratic Republic of Congo. Furthermore, our network of celebrity supporters and supportive schools has been intrinsically involved in our lobbying work: two Year 10 students from Archbishop Tenison School in South London participated in our APPG presentation.

Our important work both in places of conflict and within the corridors of government in the UK could not take place without the financial support of the Night In series. On behalf of all of the children War Child has worked with since 2000, we’d like to say thank you!

Julian Carrera
Campaigns director julian@warchild.org.uk

For more information about our current work please download our Annual Report from
http://www.warchild.org.uk/publications.asp

 

Case studies

Wahida, Afghanistan

Wahida (14) is still not sure why she is in prison. The police arrested her after a family dispute when her uncle arrived to take her away to marry a man to whom he owed money. She was arrested on a charge of ‘moral crime’ that can include refusing to honour a marriage agreement made without consent or even knowledge of the girl. She has been in prison for three months and does not know how or when she may be released.

When she is released, she has the two alternatives facing girls in her position: “home or the fire” – to return home in shame or to be rejected entirely by her family and have no choice but to kill herself by setting herself on fire.

Their families reject these girls. They are assumed to have been ruined and the best they can hope for is to be kept as a servant hidden in the home for the rest of their lives with no hope of marriage or even the chance to leave home to go shopping since the sight of her will provoke gossip.

 

Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo

Beni was conscripted into a militia group when he was eleven as part of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has killed four million people – the single largest loss of life since the Second World War. He is now sixteen. These are his words.

“I cannot forget what I have seen, what I have heard and what I have done.

Life has always been a struggle. Sometimes my parents could not feed us all. But even when we went hungry I can remember playing as a small boy. Happy times.

But all that came to an end during the war. When I was eleven the soldiers came to my home and made me join the army. They promised to feed me, educate me and train me so that I would have a job for life. And they promised my parents they would pay me in dollars to help support my family while I was gone.

So I was taken to the frontline and given a gun. As a younger one, I was always sent ahead of the grown up soldiers to draw the fire away from them. When we were not fighting, our job was to carry heavy loads for the soldiers. It was tough work and I was always falling ill. I was always hungry.

As I got a little older they made me take many girls. They said it would make me powerful, bullet proof. I fell in love with Marie Agathe. We have a son now. He is a handsome boy. His name is Moise.

Last year, when War Child helped to negotiate my release I came back home with Marie Agathe and Moise. But it’s difficult for me. I was never paid or trained. I never received any education. I still can’t read.

Many friends who returned with me are now stealing to make a living. No one trusts us. They think that we’re all bandits. They are always trying to push us out of the community. When the aid agencies come they never see us. Sometimes I think that I’m invisible.

I love Marie Agathe and want to marry her properly. I love Moise and want to make sure that he goes to school and eats every day. But I don’t want to mug people and steal from them. How can I look Moise in the eye knowing that I am a thief? How would my community ever accept me if I am hurting people? I want to work, I want to train and start my own business so that I can support my family properly.”

 

Ali, Iraq

Ali attends War Child’s drop-in centre in Basra, Iraq. He was recently interviewed for BBC’s Newsround:

“The American invasion had a huge impact on my family. The hospital was no longer able to receive medicines so my father died. My brothers returned to look after me, but they were unable to support me. I had to look for a job so I took to working on the streets. I had no time for any entertainment and little time to eat or the money to buy food; I felt that I had lost my future.

“In January this year I learnt of War Child’s Drop in Centre and have been attending literacy classes there. Since joining the centre I have made some friends and we have taken up football again. I am one of the lucky ones — I’m not working on the street any more, and I feel safer every day.”

Girls’ Night In is turning Japanese

Posted on 12. Aug, 2005 by administrator in News

The Japanese edition of Kids’ Night In is scheduled for January 2006 release. One orange book, and one blue book, will be released by the Diamond Company.

Good news for Japanese fans of Darren Shan (Japanese Shansters!) whose story is in the collection…watch this space!