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C-BERSS EX-PRESS
October 2003
Issue 3, Vol 6
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All Newsletters : October 2003 : Help to Trace Families
Help to Trace Families
Joan Kerry of the UK Australian Child Migrant Project visits Australia regularly to help former child migrants track down and make contact with long distant and/or lost relatives in the UK.
Since her last visit to Australia just under a year ago, Joan has successfully reunited 26 former child migrants with their UK family members (including three who had been searching, unsuccessfully, for over 20 years). This makes a total of 42 since Joan’s appointment two years ago!
At the end of August, Joan spent four weeks in Perth (based at the Catholic Migrant Centre and at C-BERS), meeting former child migrants who were wanting to trace family members, before moving on to make similar contacts in Geraldton, Bunbury, Melbourne and Newcastle NSW.
Joan reports there’s also been some significant progress on family tracing in Ireland. Thanks to the Sisters of Nazareth, the UK Former Child Migrant project has been able to employ an Irish social worker on a half time basis. Joan says that having someone on the spot who understands the Irish way of life is helping a lot.
The UK Australian Child Migrant Project is funded by all agencies in the Catholic Dioceses and Archdioceses in both the UK and Australia who either received or sent Child Migrants to Australia. The UK Sisters of Nazareth also make a significant contribution to the project.
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