This document discusses several cases involving risks related to religious or spiritual beliefs impacting child welfare. It summarizes the Climbe case where a girl was believed to be possessed and subjected to abuse and neglect. It also discusses the case of Kristy Bamu who was accused of witchcraft and brutally murdered. The document cautions that children from certain groups may be at higher risk, such as those with disabilities, albinism, or living with step-parents. It emphasizes the importance for social workers to critically examine beliefs to protect children's welfare and not make assumptions about other cultures.

1. Religion and belief in Social Work
Risk Assessment
Tim Curtis
κριτικός, kritikos meaning judgment or discernment

2. Meet Anna
• mum brought Anna to the A&E at about 5.25pm on Sat 24th July;
• Anna had burns to head and face;
• mum says Anna has scabies that are being treated by the Central Hospital;
• mum heard Anna scream at about 12 noon. She found that Anna had
poured hot water over her head (from the tap) to stop the itching on her
head;
• next day the nurse who had bathed Anna on Rainbow ward saw old marks
on
• Anna‘s body; they now feel sure the marks are non-accidental;
• Dr suggests that the marks look like they were done by a belt buckle;
• Anna seems slightly nervous of mum and “seems on edge when mum
visits”.
• Ward staff described how she “jumps to attention” when mum appears;
• Anna also wets herself when mum is there;
• on admission Anna appeared unkempt, dirty dress

3. Navigating terms
• Religion
• Faith
• Spirituality
• Belief
• Theism/atheism/non-theism
• THIS WILL BE A SAFE SPACE FOR YOU TO
GENUINELY ASK CHALLENGING QUESTIONS OF
ME, AND BE CHALLENGED BACK

4. Critical Theory
• Freedom from bondage, oppression or restraint
• Critical theory is a social theory oriented toward
critiquing and changing society as a whole
(Horkheimer, 1972)
• To liberate
• Understand the nature of power and
powerlessness (Freire, 2000)
• Causes of disadvantage and injustice
• Does religion bind or loose?

5. Risk
• Faith or belief as dangerous? Subversive?
– Right questions to ask
– Making professional judgements
Victoria “standing to attention”
before Kouao and Manning she “concluded
that this type of relationship was one
that can be seen in many Afro-Caribbean
families because respect and obedience
are very important features of the Afro-
Caribbean family script”.
medical practitioners considered the
possibility that children who have
grown up in
Africa may be expected to have
more marks on their bodies than
those who have
been raised in Europe.
“I was aware that as a white person I had to be
sensitive
to the feelings of people of all races and
backgrounds, both clinically and with
professionals.

6. Social Work: behaviour or beliefs?
• In my reading of social work serious case
reviews…
• Social work is focused on the behaviours of the
people involved and less interested in the
intentions and beliefs about their behaviour
– Extension of religious fasting into control of eating
behaviour
– Extension of modesty prescriptions into
withdrawal/hiding from public life
– Mainstream education to religious education
– Discipline of the body

7. Climbie
• “Kouao shout at Victoria that she was a “wicked girl”, something”
• “Victoria seemed “wary of his presence””
• Social worker “impression that Victoria was happy and seemed like the “little ray of
• sunshine”
• According to Mrs Kimbidima, Kouao told her that Victoria was possessed by an evil spirit.
• First Pastor: “He noticed wounds on both and advised Kouao to cut Victoria’s hair shorter so
that the injuries to her scalp could “breathe”. Kouao told him about Victoria’s incontinence
and he formed the view that she was possessed by an evil spirit. He advised that the problem
could be solved by prayer.”
• Manning notes “returning to his flat in order to “release satan from her bag”.
• Second pastor: “Victoria’s problems were due to her possession by an evil spirit and said he
would spend the week fasting on Victoria’s behalf. He believes he made it clear that Victoria
was not expected to fast herself.
• According to Pastor Lima, Friday was the day on which prayers are said for deliverance from
“witchcraft, bad luck and everything bad or evil”.
• Kouao was “forceful” and “manipulative” and did not allow Victoria to answer questions staff
directed to her.

8. Child B
• An eight year old boy who lived with them one day
accused the Child ‘B’ of being possessed and the adults
agreed that this 10-year old girl was a witch and that
she was practising an evil form of witchcraft. She was
starved, cut with a knife, hit with a belt and shoes
• She had had chilli peppers rubbed into her eyes and
• was repeatedly slapped, kicked and bitten. At one
stage, she was put in a laundry bag to be thrown in a
river and was told
• “this is the day that you are going to die”

9. Kristy Bamu
• Bikubi’s attention after he found a pair of wet pants
belonging to Kristy.
• Wetting is an act popularly linked to witchcraft. Bikubi then
accused Kristy of trying to harm his child.
• The child suffers from a congenital disease and was in
hospital before Kristy and other siblings came to visit Bikubi
family.
• He punched, kicked and head butted him before beating
him with a metal weight-lifting bar as hard as he could and
knocking out his teeth with a hammer.
• Bikubi also ripped apart one of his ears with a pair of pliers
and broke four floor tiles on his head and forced Kristy’s
• siblings to join in the violence and help clear the blood.

10. Who is at risk?
• Children with disability including autism, epilepsy, down’s
syndrome, dyslexia etc
• Albinos
• Children living away from home in private fostering
situations or in domestic servitude situations
• Children living with a step parent, with one of the natural
parents absent or dead
• Children whose parents have been branded as witches
• Children who are seen as “naughty” or have challenging
behaviour
• Precocious children and left handed children
• Children who are living within a polygamous setting
http://www.afruca.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ECJ-3-4-Faith-based-abuse.pdf

11. Be careful of what people say
• “God, holy, awesome and glorious, Who is unsearchable and inscrutable in
all His works and might, has foreordained for you the penalty of eternal
punishment, O Devil. The same God, through us, His unworthy servant,
commands you, with all your hosts, to depart from him (her) who has
been newly sealed in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, our true God.
Wherefore I charge you, most crafty, impure, vile, loathsome and alien
spirit, by the might of Jesus Christ, Who has all power, both in heaven and
on earth, Who said to the deaf and dumb demon, "Come out of the man,
and in nowise enter a second time into him:" Depart! …
• Expel from him (her) every evil and unclean spirit which hides and makes
its lair in his (her) heart. (3x)
• The spirit of deceit, the spirit of evil, the spirit of idolatry and of every 4
covetousness; the spirit of falsehood and of every uncleanness, which
operates through the prompting of the devil. “
• Excerpt from the Rite of Baptism of the Orthodox Christian Church

12. Asking about Faith- HOPE
• What gives you ‘Hope’- i.e. what belief’s in
good/bad etc do you have?
• What are the Organised aspects of that?
Religious practice and observance
• What Personal implications does that have?
Difference between religion and faith, between
group and personal experience
• What Expectations does that create for you and
the social work context?
• (Anandarajah and Hight 2001)
“The wisest course is to be humble when considering the extent of one’s own knowledge
about different ‘cultures’ and to take advice whenever it is available.” Laming Report p364

13. Case for Early Help

14. Is it always religious? Child J
• What beliefs did Child J hold about herself?
• How did ‘fervent’ beliefs on anorexia impact on her through social media
(‘Pro-Ana’)
• How did her mother’s beliefs about herself and her daughter impact on
the situation?
• And then her mother’s death? Understanding of mortality?
• “J said that she felt like an “empty box”, “feels nothing”.”
• s. J’s Aunt
• spoke of her own emotional health problems and of J’s mother “starving J,
then force feeding her”.
• dissociative episode in a CBT session (‘incoherent, speaks about seeing
images of a group doing things to children and fears the group will come
to get her. Feeling unwanted’)
• “there was little thought or reflection about [her diaries’] significance as
an important part of understanding J’s inner world “
Lambeth Safeguarding Children Board February 2016

15. References
• Gelman, S (2005) SCIENCE BRIEFS: Essentialism in
Everyday Thought Psychological Science Agenda
http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2005/05
/gelman.aspx [Accessed 21 Oct 2016]
• Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed.
Bloomsbury Publishing
• Horkheimer, M. (1972). Critical theory: Selected
essays (Vol. 1). A&C Black.
• Anandarajah, G., & Hight, E. (2001). Spirituality
and medical practice. American family physician,
63(1), 81-88.