HSBC Malta Foundation supports international children conference

As an organisation with a mission to help disadvantaged children, along with protecting the environment and preserving Malta’s heritage, HSBC Malta Foundation will be supporting the organisation of the 2017 World Conference of the International Foster Care Organisation (IFCO) in Malta.

The children’s agenda will take centre stage from 1-4th November in Valletta after the National Foster Care Association Malta’s (NFCAM) successfully bid to host the 20th edition of the prestigious biennial international gathering in Malta. It was last held in Malta in 2007.

The theme for the conference is “Setting Sail from a Safe Port: Giving our Children confidence to move forward through permanent relationships”.

NFCAM’s president Paul Gatt said: “It’s not easy being a child in the era of distractions and diminishing attention spans. We are grateful to HSBC Malta Foundation for their support, which will enable a handful of foster-care advocates to participate in this conference and apply the lessons learnt to improve the quality of lives of our children.”

Some of the conference’s subthemes will touch upon child protection, child migration, child education, trauma and its effect, youth participation, and measuring success.

NFCAM (nfcam.org) was established in 2007 to work with all those involved in fostering in order to achieve the best outcomes for children and young people. IFCO (ifco.info) has been dedicated to the promotion and support of familybased foster-care across the world for the past 35 years. Other conference partners include the President’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society (pfws.org.mt) and European children’s rights advocacy group, Eurochild (eurochild.org). The full conference details can be had on https://2017conference.ifco.info/en/